Dual pass scanning

ABSTRACT

A method for exposing a wafer using a plurality of charged particle beamlets. The method comprises identifying non-functional beamlets among the beamlets, allocating a first subset of the beamlets for exposing a first portion of the wafer, the first subset excluding the identified non-functional beamlets, performing a first scan for exposing the first portion of the wafer using the first subset of the beamlets, allocating a second subset of the beamlets for exposing a second portion of the wafer, the second subset also excluding the identified non-functional beamlets, and performing a second scan for exposing the second portion of the wafer using the second subset of the beamlets, wherein the first and second portions of the wafer do not overlap and together comprise the complete area of the wafer to be exposed.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of PCT application numberPCT/IB2010/052217 filed on 19 May 2010, which claims priority from U.S.provisional application No. 61/179,762 filed on 20 May 2009. Bothapplications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a maskless charged particle lithographyapparatus, and in particular to a data path, a method for implementingcorrections, and a scanning method for such apparatus.

2. Description of the Related Art

A design for an integrated circuit is typically represented in acomputer-readable file. The GDS-II file format (GDS stands for GraphicData Signal) is a database file format which is the lithography industrystandard for data exchange of integrated circuit or IC layout artwork.For lithography machines which use masks, a GDS-II file is typicallyused to manufacture a mask or set of masks which are then used by thelithography machine. For maskless lithography machines, the GDS-II fileis electronically processed to put it into a format suitable forcontrolling the lithography machine. For charged particle lithographymachines, the GDS-II file is converted into a set of control signals forcontrolling the charged particles beams used in the lithography process.

A preprocessing unit may be used to process the GDS-II file to generateintermediate data for the present lithography system. Depending on thearchitecture option this intermediate data is either a bitmap format ora description of areas in vector format. The Present lithography systemuses the intermediate data to write patterns on to a wafer using a largequantity of electron beams.

The architecture of the data path needs to be defined to implement allfeatures required to be able to scale up to a full-field high volume atthe lowest cost. The data path features required for the full-field highvolume machine contains different types of correction, which arerequired for tool calibrations and process variations.

In yet another aspect, the invention provides a method for exposing awafer according to pattern data using a charged particle lithographymachine generating a plurality of charged particle beamlets for exposingthe wafer. The method comprises providing the pattern data in a vectorformat, rendering the vector pattern data to generate multi-levelpattern data, dithering the multi-level pattern data to generatetwo-level pattern data, supplying the two-level pattern data to thecharged particle lithography machine, and switching on and off thebeamlets generated by the charged particle lithography machine on thebasis of the two-level pattern data, wherein the pattern data isadjusted on the basis of corrective data.

Adjusting the pattern data may comprise adjusting the vector patterndata on the basis of first corrective data, adjusting the multi-levelpattern data on the basis of second corrective data, and/or adjustingthe two-level pattern data on the basis of third corrective data.

Rendering the vector pattern data may comprise defining an array ofpixel cells, and assigning multi-level values to the pixel cells basedon relative coverage of the pixel cells by features defined by thevector pattern data. Dithering the multi-level pattern data may compriseforming the two-level pattern data by application of error diffusion onthe multi-level pattern data. The error diffusion may comprisedistributing quantization error in a pixel of the multi-level patterndata to one or more adjacent pixels of the multi-level pattern data.Application of error diffusion may include defining an array of pixels,dividing the array of pixels into portions, each portion being assignedto be exposed by a different beamlet, determining error diffusionparameter values for each portion, and assigning a two-level value tothe pixels within each portion using error diffusion parameter values.The error diffusion parameter values may comprise a threshold value anda weight value for the higher level of the two-level value. The errordiffusion parameter values may further comprise a weight value for thelower level of the two-level value. The threshold value may be equal to50% of the high level pixel value.

The threshold value equals the average of the high level pixel value andthe low level pixel value. Determining the error diffusion parametervalues may be based on beamlet current measurements. The error diffusionparameter value may be a threshold value, and assigning a two-levelvalue to the pixel cells within a portion may be based on comparisonwith the threshold value determined for the portion. The error diffusionparameter may be a value representing the higher level of the two-levelvalue, and it may be a one-dimensional error diffusion or atwo-dimensional error diffusion. The application of error diffusion maybe restricted by disallowing diffusion towards one or more pixels with amulti-level value equal to or below a further threshold value, and thefurther threshold value may be equal to zero.

The application of error diffusion may be restricted by disallowingdiffusion to one or more pixels that are located outside the featuresdescribed in the vector pattern data.

The first corrective data may comprise a proximity effect correction,which may comprise a dose correction, a shape correction, or acombination of dose correction and shape correction. The firstcorrective data may comprise a resist heating correction, a correctionto compensate for variation in the position of one or more of thebeamlets, a correction to compensate for errors in the positioning of afield of the wafer with respect to the wafer, and/or a correction tocompensate for errors in the size of a field of the wafer.

The correction may comprise an adjustment of the vector pattern datathat results in shifting the multi-level pattern data by less than afull pixel. The wafer may be moved in a mechanical scan direction duringexposure of the wafer, and the correction may comprise an adjustment ofthe vector pattern data that results a shift of the multi-level patterndata having a component in both the mechanical scan direction and adirection substantially perpendicular to the mechanical scan direction.The first corrective data may comprise a correction to compensate forvariation in the transmission time of the beamlet control signals to thelithography machine.

The method may comprise switching the beamlets on and off by beamletblanker electrodes in a beamlet blanker array, each beamlet blankerelectrode receiving a beamlet control signal, wherein the firstcorrective data comprises a correction to compensate for a difference inthe time when beamlet control signals are received by the beamletblanker electrodes. The beamlets may be deflected to scan the surface ofthe wafer, and the first corrective data may comprise a correction tocompensate for variations in the amount of deflection experienced bydifferent beamlets.

Dithering the multi-level pattern data may comprise assigning a highvalue or a low value for each corresponding multi-level value of themulti-level pattern data based on comparison with a threshold value, anda quantization error may be calculated by subtracting a weight of thehigh level value or a weight of the low level value from the multi-levelpattern data, the weight of the high level value being defined on thebasis of the second corrective data. The weight of the low value may bedefined on the basis of the second corrective data. The threshold valuemay be defined on the basis of the second corrective data. Dithering themulti-level pattern data may comprise determining a two-level value bycomparing a corresponding multi-level value of the multi-level patterndata to a threshold value, and wherein adjusting the pattern datacomprises adjusting the threshold value on the basis of the secondcorrective data.

The second corrective data may comprise a correction to compensate forvariation in the position of one or more beamlets, a correction tocompensate for errors in the positioning of a field of the wafer withrespect to the wafer, and/or a correction to compensate for errors inthe size of a field of the wafer. The correction may comprise anadjustment of the multi-level pattern data equivalent to shifting themulti-level pattern data by less than a full pixel.

The wafer may be moved in a mechanical scan direction during exposure ofthe wafer, and the correction may comprise an adjustment of themulti-level pattern data that results a shift having a component in boththe mechanical scan direction and a direction substantiallyperpendicular to the mechanical scan direction. The second correctivedata may comprise a correction for realizing a soft edge between areasexposed by different beamlets or groups of beamlets. The soft edge maybe made by multiplying the multi-level pattern data with a soft edgefactor, the soft edge factor increasing linearly with the distance tothe edge until a maximum value is reached. The maximum value may be 1, astarting value of the factor may be 0 at an edge, and the soft edge mayhave a width of about 0.5 to 1.5 micron.

The third corrective data may comprise a correction to compensate forvariation in the position of one or more beamlets, a correction tocompensate for errors in the positioning of a field of the wafer withrespect to the wafer, and/or a correction to compensate for errors inthe size of a field of the wafer. The wafer may be moved in a mechanicalscan direction during exposure of the wafer, and the third correctivedata may comprise a full pixel shift in the mechanical scan direction.The wafer may be moved in a mechanical scan direction during exposure ofthe wafer, and the third corrective data may comprise a full pixel shiftin a direction substantially perpendicular to the mechanical scandirection.

The step of providing pattern data in a vector format may compriseproviding design data describing a plurality of layers of a devicedesign, and transforming a layer of the design data to generate twodimensional pattern data in vector format. The design data may comprisedata in a GDS-II format or an OASIS format. The vector pattern data maycomprise vector data describing the shape of features for patterning onthe wafer and dose values associated with the features. The vectorpattern data may comprise vector data describing the shape of featuresfor patterning on the wafer and an array of dose values forcorresponding areas on the wafer.

The multi-level pattern data may comprise an array of multi-level valuesassigned to pixel cells, and the multi-level pattern data may comprisegray scale bitmap data. The two-level pattern data may compriseblack/white bitmap data.

The rendering and rasterizing steps may be performed by off-lineprocessing whereby the rendering and rasterizing of pattern data for thewhole wafer is completed before the wafer scan begins. The rendering andrasterizing steps may be performed once per design. The rendering andrasterizing steps may be performed by in-line processing, whereby therendering and rasterizing of pattern data for a first set of fields ofthe wafer is completed before a scan of the first set of fields begins,while the rendering and rasterizing of pattern data for the remainingfields of the wafer continues during the scan of the first set offields. The first set of fields and the remaining fields may be suchthat they do not overlap. The first set of fields and the remainingfields together may comprise the complete area of the wafer to beexposed.

The first set of fields may be exposed in a first scan of the wafer andthe remaining fields exposed in a second scan of the wafer. A firstsubset of the beamlets may be allocated for exposing the first set offields and a second subset of the beamlets may be allocated for exposingthe remaining fields. The rendering and rasterizing steps may beperformed once per wafer, and may be performed by real-time processing,whereby the rendering and rasterizing for a first set of fields of thewafer continues during the scan of the first set of fields. Therendering and rasterizing steps may be performed once per field of thewafer, and may be performed during exposure of the wafer.

In a further aspect of the invention, a charged particle lithographysystem for exposing a wafer according to pattern data is provided. Thesystem comprises an electron optical column for generating a pluralityof electron beamlets for exposing the wafer, the electron optical columnincluding a beamlet blanker array for switching the beamlets on or off,a data path for transmitting beamlet control data for control of theswitching of the beamlets, and a wafer positioning system for moving thewafer under the electron optical column in an x-direction. The waferpositioning system is provided with synchronization signals from thedata path to align the wafer with the electron beams from theelectron-optical column. The data path further comprises one or moreprocessing units for generating the beamlet control data and one or moretransmission channels for transmitting the beamlet control data to thebeamlet blanker array.

The transmission system may comprise a plurality of transmissionchannels, each transmission channel for transmitting data for acorresponding group of beamlets. The beamlets may be arranged in aplurality of groups, each transmission channel for transmitting beamletcontrol data for one of the groups of beamlets. The data path maycomprise a plurality of multiplexers, each multiplexer for multiplexingbeamlet control data for a group of beamlets. The system may furthercomprise a plurality of demultiplexers, each demultiplexer fordemultiplexing beamlet control data for a group of beamlets. The datapath may comprise electrical-to-optical conversion devices forconverting the beamlet control data generated by the processing units toan optical signal for transmission to the charged particle lithographymachine.

The transmission channels may comprise optical fibers for guiding theoptical signal, and the beamlet blanker array may compriseoptical-to-electrical conversion devices for receiving the opticalsignal and converting it to an electrical signal for control of thebeamlets. The transmission system may comprise an array of lenses and amirror, the array of lenses for guiding the optical signal onto themirror, and the mirror for reflecting the optical signal onto thebeamlet blanker array of the charged particle lithography machine.

The system may further comprise a first number of processing unitssufficient for processing the pattern data to generate first beamletcontrol data for a first subset of the beamlets allocated for exposing afirst portion of the wafer. The system may further comprise across-connect switch for connecting the processing units to a subset ofthe transmission channels.

The beamlets may be arranged in a plurality of groups, each processingunit for generating beamlet control data for any one group of beamlets,and each transmission channel dedicated for transmitting beamlet controldata for one of the groups of beamlets. Seven processing units may beprovided for every twelve transmission channels.

The charged particle lithography system may have a first subset of thebeamlets allocated for exposing a first portion of the wafer and asecond subset of the beamlets for exposing a second portion of thewafer, and the cross-connect switch may connect the processing units toa first subset of the transmission channels corresponding to the firstsubset of the beamlets for a scan of the first portion of the wafer, andconnect the processing units to a second subset of the transmissionchannels corresponding to the second subset of the beamlets for a scanof the second portion of the wafer. The first number of processing unitsmay be sufficient for processing the pattern data to generate the firstbeamlet control data and processing the pattern data to generate thesecond beamlet control data, but not sufficient for processing thepattern data to generate both the first and second beamlet control dataat the same time.

The lithography system may be adapted for exposing the wafer in adual-pass scan in which a first portion of the wafer is exposedaccording to first pattern data and subsequently a second portion of thewafer is exposed according to second pattern data, and the processingunits may comprise memory, the memory being divided into a first memoryportion for storing the first pattern data and a second memory portionfor storing the second pattern data, and during exposure of the secondportion of a wafer of a current batch of wafers, first pattern data fora wafer of a next batch of wafers may be loaded into the first memoryportion.

In another aspect the invention comprises a method for exposing a waferin a charged particle lithography system. The method comprisesgenerating a plurality of charged particle beamlets, the beamletsarranged in groups, each group comprising an array of beamlets, movingthe wafer under the beamlets in a first direction at a wafer scan speed,deflecting the beamlets in a second direction substantiallyperpendicular to the first direction at a deflection scan speed, andadjusting the wafer scan speed to adjust a dose imparted by the beamletson the wafer. The beamlets may expose the wafer using a parallelprojection writing strategy, and the deflection scan speed may comprisea beamlet scan speed and a fly-back speed.

Each array of beamlets may have a projection pitch Pproj in the firstdirection between beamlets of the array, and a group distance equal tothe projection pitch Pproj multiplied by the number of beamlets in thearray, and wherein a scan step, equal to the relative movement in thex-direction between the beamlets and the wafer between each scan, equalsthe group distance divided by an integer K. The scan step may beadjusted by adjusting a beamlet scan speed and/or a fly-back speed, orby adjusting a beamlet deflection period, the beamlet deflection periodcomprising the time for one beamlet scan in the y-direction and abeamlet fly-back time. The deflection period may be equal to the groupdistance divided by integer K, divided by the beamlet scan speed. Themethod may be such that K satisfies a requirement that the greatestcommon denominator of K and the number of beamlets in each array, isone.

In yet another aspect the invention relates to a method for exposing awafer in a charged particle lithography system. The method comprisesgenerating a plurality of charged particle beamlets, the beamletsarranged in groups, each group comprising an array of beamlets, movingthe wafer under the beamlets in an first direction at a wafer scanspeed, deflecting the beamlets in a second direction substantiallyperpendicular to the first direction at a deflection scan speed,switching the beamlets on and off according to pattern data as thebeamlets are deflected to expose pixels onto the wafer, and adjustingthe wafer scan speed relative to the deflection scan speed to adjust thepixel width in the first direction.

The beamlets may expose the wafer using a parallel projection writingstrategy, and the deflection scan speed comprises a beamlet scan speedand a fly-back speed. Each array of beamlets may have a projection pitchPproj in the first direction between beamlets of the array, and a groupdistance equal to the projection pitch Pproj multiplied by the number ofbeamlets in the array, and a scan step, may be equal to the relativemovement in the x-direction between the beamlets and the wafer betweeneach scan, equals the group distance divided by an integer K. The scanstep may be adjusted by adjusting a beamlet scan speed and/or a fly-backspeed. The scan step may be adjusted by adjusting a beamlet deflectionperiod, the beamlet deflection period comprising the time for onebeamlet scan in the y-direction and a beamlet fly-back time. Thedeflection period may be equal to the group distance divided by integerK, divided by the beamlet scan speed. The method may be such that Ksatisfies a requirement that the greatest common denominator of K andthe number of beamlets in each array, is one.

In yet another aspect, the invention provides a method for exposing awafer in a charged particle lithography system. The method comprisesgenerating a plurality of charged particle beamlets, the beamletsarranged in groups, each group comprising an array of beamlets, creatingrelative movement in a first direction between the beamlets and thewafer, deflecting the beamlets in a second direction substantiallyperpendicular to the x-direction at a deflection scan speed, so thateach beamlet exposes a plurality of scan lines on the wafer, andadjusting the relative movement in the first direction and thedeflection of the beamlets in the second direction to adjust a doseimparted by the beamlets on the wafer. Each array of beamlets has aprojection pitch Pproj in the first direction between beamlets of thearray, and a group distance equal to the projection pitch Pprojmultiplied by the number of beamlets in the array, and the relativemovement in the x-direction between the beamlets and the wafer betweeneach scan equals the group distance divided by an integer K.

The value K may be selected so that the greatest common denominator of Kand the number of beamlets in each array, is one. A width of the scanlines may be the projection pitch Pproj divided by integer K. Thebeamlets may be switched on and off according to pattern data as thebeamlets are deflected to expose pixels onto the wafer, and a width ofthe pixels in the first direction may be the projection pitch Pprojdivided by integer K.

In yet a further aspect, the invention relates to a method for definingfeatures for writing on a target using a lithography process. The methodcomprises defining an array of cells, the features occupying one or moreof the cells, and describing for each cell any corners of the featuresthat fall within the cell. The corner may be described by a cornerposition, a first vector, and a second vector, the two vectorsoriginating from the position. The corner positions may be described bytwo coordinates, and/or by Cartesian coordinates. Each vector may bedescribed by an orientation code specifying a direction for the vector.

The feature may be defined as the area bounded by the vectors and thecell boundaries when moving in a predetermined direction from the firstvector to the second vector, such as a clockwise direction. A pseudocorner may be defined for a feature falling partly within a cell butotherwise having no corners within the cell. The pseudo corner may bedescribed by first and second vectors oriented at 180 degrees withrespect to each other.

The vectors may be selected to only have a direction parallel to a cellboundary or perpendicular to a cell boundary, and/or to only have adirection parallel to a cell boundary, perpendicular to a cell boundary,or at 45 degrees to a cell boundary.

A minimum feature pitch may be defined and the cells may have a sizeequal to or less than the minimum feature pitch. The cells may have asize equal to or less than half of the square root of two multiplied bythe minimum feature pitch. The minimum feature pitch may be defined as asize equal to or greater than the size of the cells multiplied by thesquare root of two.

For features or part of features having an edge oriented at 45 degreesto a cell boundary, a minimum feature pitch may be defined having a sizeequal to or greater than the size of the cells multiplied by the squareroot of two. A maximum number of corners may be defined for each cell.Each cell may contain one or more features, and/or a portion of one ofmore features. Each cell may comprise pattern data for part of a fieldof the wafer, or pattern data of a stripe of a field of the wafer.

In another aspect, the invention comprises a method of processingpattern data for use in a lithography process, the method comprisingproviding the pattern data in a vector format, transforming the vectorpattern data a generate pattern data in a cell based format, andrasterizing the cell based pattern data to generate two-level patterndata for use in the lithography process. The cell based pattern data maycomprise cell data describing features occupying one or more of thecells of an array of cells, the cell data describing for each cell anycorners of the features that fall within the cell. Rasterizing the cellbased pattern data may be performed in real-time processing while thelithography process is being performed. Rasterizing the cell basedpattern data may comprise rendering the cell based pattern data togenerate multi-level pattern data, and dithering the multi-level patterndata to generate the two-level pattern data.

In yet another aspect, the invention provides a method for exposing awafer according to pattern data using a charged particle lithographymachine generating a plurality of charged particle beamlets for exposingthe wafer, the method comprising providing the pattern data in a vectorformat, transforming the vector pattern data a generate pattern data ina cell based format, rasterizing the cell based pattern data to generatetwo-level pattern data, streaming the two-level pattern data to abeamlet blanker array for switching on and off the beamlets generated bythe charged particle lithography machine, and switching on and off thebeamlets on the basis of the two-level pattern data.

The cell based pattern data may comprise cell data describing featuresoccupying one or more of the cells of an array of cells, the cell datadescribing for each cell any corners of the features that fall withinthe cell. Rasterizing the cell based pattern data may be performed inreal-time processing while the lithography machine is exposing thewafer. Rasterizing the cell based pattern data may comprise renderingthe cell based pattern data to generate multi-level pattern data, anddithering the multi-level pattern data to generate the two-level patterndata.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method for exposing a wafer using aplurality of charged particle beamlets. The method comprises identifyingnon-functional beamlets among the beamlets, allocating a first subset ofthe beamlets for exposing a first portion of the wafer, the first subsetexcluding the identified non-functional beamlets, performing a firstscan for exposing the first portion of the wafer using the first subsetof the beamlets, allocating a second subset of the beamlets for exposinga second portion of the wafer, the second subset also excluding theidentified non-functional beamlets, and performing a second scan forexposing the second portion of the wafer using the second subset of thebeamlets, wherein the first and second portions of the wafer do notoverlap and together comprise the complete area of the wafer to beexposed.

The first and second subsets may be substantially equal in size, and thefirst and second portions may be substantially equal in size. The firstand second portions may each comprise selected stripes from a pluralityof fields of the wafer. The step of identifying the non-functionalbeamlets may comprise measuring the beamlets to identify failed orout-of-specification beamlets. Measuring the beamlets may comprisedirecting the plurality of beamlets onto a sensor and detecting presenceof the beamlets, directing the plurality of beamlets onto a sensor andmeasuring beamlet position, scanning the plurality of beamlets onto asensor and measuring beamlet deflection, and/or scanning the pluralityof beamlets onto a sensor and measuring beamlet current.

The plurality of beamlets may be divided into groups, each group ofbeamlets for exposing a corresponding stripe within each field of thewafer. The position of the wafer with respect to the plurality ofbeamlets may be different at the beginning of the second scan than atthe beginning of the first scan.

The method may further comprise calculating a first wafer position ofthe wafer with respect to the plurality of beamlets, moving the wafer tothe first position before beginning the first scan, calculating a secondwafer position of the wafer with respect to the plurality of beamlets,and moving the wafer to the second position before beginning the secondscan, wherein the first position in conjunction with the allocation ofthe first subset of beamlets to the first portion of the wafer, and thesecond position in conjunction with the allocation of the second subsetof beamlets to the second portion of the wafer, results in the first andsecond portions being exposed by beamlets of only one of the subsets ofbeamlets.

The method may alternatively further comprise executing an algorithm todetermine a first position in conjunction with the allocation of thefirst subset of beamlets to the first portion of the wafer, and a secondposition in conjunction with the allocation of the second subset ofbeamlets to the second portion of the wafer, that will result in thefirst and second portions being exposed by beamlets of only one of thesubsets of beamlets.

The method may include switching the beamlets on and off by a beamletblanker array during each scan according to beamlet control data. Thebeamlet control data may comprise first beamlet control data forswitching the first subset of beamlets during the first scan, and secondbeamlet control data for switching the second subset of beamlets duringthe second scan, and wherein the method further comprises transmittingthe first beamlet control data to the beamlet blanker array during thefirst scan and transmitting the second beamlet control data to thebeamlet blanker array during the second scan.

The method may further comprise processing pattern data to generate thebeamlet control data, and wherein the second beamlet control data isgenerated during the first scan. The processing may comprise rasterizingthe pattern data to generate the beamlet control data, and wherein therasterizing for the second beamlet control data is performed during thefirst scan. The processing of the pattern data may comprise preparingthe beamlet control data for streaming to the beamlet blanker array, andwherein the second beamlet control data is prepared for streaming to theblanker array during the first scan.

The method may further comprise processing pattern data to generate thebeamlet control data, and the first beamlet control data of the nextwafer to be exposed may be generated during the second scan of the wafercurrently being exposed. Processing the pattern data may compriserasterizing the pattern data to generate the beamlet control data, andthe rasterizing for the first beamlet control data of the next wafer tobe exposed may be performed during the second scan of the wafercurrently being exposed. Processing the pattern data may comprisepreparing the beamlet control data for streaming to the beamlet blankerarray, and the first beamlet control data of the next wafer to beexposed may be prepared for streaming to the blanker array during thesecond scan of the wafer currently being exposed.

The method may further comprise providing a first number of processingunits sufficient for processing the pattern data to generate the firstbeamlet control data, providing a second number of channels fortransmitting the beamlet control data to the beamlet blanker array, eachchannel transmitting data for a corresponding group of beamlets,connecting the processing units to the channels corresponding to thefirst subset of beamlets for exposing the first portion of the wafer,processing the pattern data in the processing units to generate thefirst beamlet control data, and transmitting the first beamlet controldata to the beamlet blanker array.

The method may further comprise providing a third number of processingunits sufficient for processing the pattern data to generate the secondbeamlet control data, providing a fourth number of channels fortransmitting the beamlet control data to the beamlet blanker array, eachchannel transmitting data for a corresponding group of beamlets,connecting the processing units to the channels corresponding to thesecond subset of beamlets for exposing the second portion of the wafer,processing the pattern data in the processing units to generate thesecond beamlet control data, and transmitting the second beamlet controldata to the beamlet blanker array.

The first number of processing units may be sufficient for processingthe pattern data to generate the first beamlet control data andprocessing the pattern data to generate the second beamlet control data,but not sufficient for processing the pattern data to generate both thefirst and second beamlet control data at the same time. Seven processingunits may be provided for every twelve channels.

The invention in another aspects provides a lithography systemcomprising a charged particle optics column including a blanker forgenerating charged particle beamlets for projection of a pattern onto atarget, a target support, the column and target support being includedmoveable relative to one another in the system, the system furthercomprising a data path for processing and transferring pattern data to ablanker of the column, the blanker arranged capable of switching each ofthe beamlets on and off in respect of projection on the target, thedatapath comprising processing units for processing pattern data intoprojection data related to a stripe on the target forming a projectionarea of a beamlet at relative movement of target support and column, thedata path thereto comprising channels connected to the blanker forindividually controlling a beamlet by the projection data, the systemfurther being provided with a switch for switching connection aprocessing unit between different channels.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various aspects of the invention and certain examples of embodiments ofthe invention are illustrated in the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing a maskless lithography system;

FIG. 2A is a simplified schematic drawing of an embodiment of a chargedparticle lithography system;

FIG. 2B is a simplified diagram of elements in a data path;

FIGS. 3 and 4 show a portion of a beamlet blanker array;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing writing direction on a wafer divided intofields;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a scanline bit frame and beamlet deflection;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of pattern offset andpattern scaling;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing examples of possible interleaving schemesfor writing a stripe using four beamlets;

FIG. 9 is a diagram of a simplified four beamlet blanker array and scanline patterns;

FIG. 10 is a table of values for factor K and distance betweenscanlines;

FIG. 11 is a diagram of an array of nine beamlets showing beam pitchP_(b), projection pitch P_(proj), grid width W_(proj), and tilt orinclination angle α_(array);

FIG. 12 is a diagram of a frame start indicator bit;

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a node with X processing units;

FIG. 14 is a conceptual diagram of channel positions per scan;

FIGS. 15 and 16 are conceptual diagrams of an allocation of processingunits to channels for two scans;

FIGS. 17-23 are graphs illustrating results of simulation experiments ofvarying the capacity of a data path in relation to capacity of alithography machine;

FIG. 24 is a flow diagram showing dependencies of processes in alithography system;

FIGS. 25 and 26 are diagrams illustrating an example of x and y patternshift;

FIG. 27 is a table of typical parameters and ranges for different typesof corrections;

FIG. 28 is a simplified functional block diagram of a data path;

FIG. 29 is a diagram of layout pattern features overlaid on a stripe;

FIG. 30 is a diagram of a dithering process;

FIG. 31 is a diagram of bit shifting in a bit frame;

FIG. 32 is a diagram of beamlet positions for parameters N=4 and K=3;

FIG. 33 is a schematic block diagram showing data processing and storageelements of a data path;

FIG. 34 is a functional block diagram of a second embodiment of a datapath;

FIG. 35 is a flow diagram showing dependencies of processes for the datapath of FIG. 34;

FIG. 36 is a block diagram of elements of a pattern streamer node;

FIG. 37 is a functional diagram showing data flow between elements ofthe pattern streamer node of FIG. 36;

FIG. 38 is a block diagram showing detail of processing and transmissionelements of a data path;

FIG. 39 is a functional block diagram of a portion of a data pathincluding compression and decompression functions;

FIG. 40 illustrates an example of a dithered monochrome test image;

FIG. 41 is a functional block diagram of a portion of data pathincluding compression and decompression functions after channelrendering;

FIG. 42 shows an example of a rendered bitmap of a cell;

FIG. 43 is a conceptual diagram of a small grid of input pixels and bigoutput pixels;

FIG. 44 is a functional block diagram of another embodiment of a datapath;

FIG. 45 is a flow diagram showing dependencies of processes for the datapath of FIG. 44;

FIG. 46 is a block diagram of elements of a pattern streamer node;

FIGS. 47 and 48 are functional diagrams showing alternative data flowbetween elements of the pattern streamer node of FIG. 46;

FIG. 49 is a schematic diagram of communication between elements of adata path;

FIG. 50 is a functional diagram showing alternative data flow betweenelements of the pattern streamer node;

FIG. 51 is a diagram of an internal architecture of a GPU for a datapath;

FIG. 52 is a functional diagram showing an alternative data flow betweenelements of the pattern streamer node;

FIG. 53 is a functional block diagram of another embodiment of a datapath;

FIG. 54 is a block diagram showing detail of processing and transmissionelements of a data path;

FIG. 55 is a schematic diagram of a data path withinterleaved/multiplexed subchannels;

FIG. 56 is a schematic diagram of a demultiplexing scheme usingrow-selectors and column selectors;

FIG. 57 is a table of pixel size and grid width in dependence on thenumber of beamlets per patterned beam (N_(pat) _(_) _(beams)), the arraytilt angle (α_(array)), the projection pitch (P_(proj)), and K factor;

FIG. 58A is a diagram illustrating a smart boundary strategy;

FIG. 58B is a diagram illustrating a soft edges strategy;

FIG. 59 is a functional flow diagram of an embodiment of a data pathusing off-line rasterization;

FIG. 60 is a functional flow diagram of an embodiment of a data pathusing in-line rasterization;

FIG. 61 is a functional flow diagram of another embodiment of a datapath using in-line rasterization;

FIG. 62 is a functional flow diagram of an embodiment of a data pathusing real-line rasterization;

FIG. 63 is a diagram illustrating an array of four beamlets;

FIG. 64 is a diagram illustrating a stitching scheme;

FIG. 65 is a diagram illustrating a writing strategy with factor K=1 andK=3;

FIG. 66 is a diagram illustrating possible values of K for a patternedbeam having 4 beamlets;

FIG. 67 is a diagram illustrating an example of a pattern layout;

FIG. 68 is a diagram illustrating a corner concept;

FIG. 69 is a diagram illustrating vector orientations;

FIG. 70 is a diagram illustrating coding of a square feature;

FIG. 71 is a diagram illustrating coding of complex feature shapes;

FIG. 72 is a diagram illustrating an example of a minimum feature pitchless than a diagonal length of a cell;

FIG. 73 is a diagram illustrating an example of features with serifsadded to some of their corners;

FIG. 74 is a simplified schematic drawing of an embodiment of a chargedparticle multi-beamlet lithography system; and

FIG. 75 is a diagram showing a division into beam areas and non-beamareas.

DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

The following is a description of various embodiments of the invention,given by way of example only and with reference to the drawings.

Charged Particle Lithography System

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing a charged particle lithographysystem 100 divided into three high level sub-systems: a waferpositioning system 101, an electron optical column 102, and data path103. The wafer positioning system 101 moves the wafer under the electronoptical column 102 in the x-direction. The wafer position system 101 isprovided with synchronization signals from the data path 103 to alignthe wafer with the electron beamlets generated by the electron-opticalcolumn 102.

FIG. 2A shows a simplified schematic drawing of an embodiment of acharged particle lithography system 100 showing details of the electronoptical column 102. Such lithography systems are described for examplein U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,897,458 and 6,958,804 and 7,019,908 and 7,084,414and 7,129,502, U.S. patent application publication no. 2007/0064213, andco-pending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 61/031,573 and 61/031,594and 61/045,243 and 61/055,839 and 61/058,596 and 61/101,682, which areall assigned to the owner of the present application and are all herebyincorporated by reference in their entirety.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2A, the lithography system comprises acharged particle source 110, e.g. an electron source for producing anexpanding electron beam 130. The expanding electron beam 130 impinges onan aperture array 111, which blocks part of the beam to create aplurality of beamlets 131. The system generates a large number ofbeamlets, preferably in the range of about 10,000 to 1,000,000 beamlets.

The electron beamlets 131 pass through a condenser lens array 112 whichfocuses the electron beamlets 131. The beamlets 131 are collimated bycollimator lens system 113. The collimated electron beamlets passthrough XY deflector array 114, a second aperture array 115, and secondcondenser lens array 116. The resulting beamlets 132 next pass throughbeam blanker array 117, comprising a plurality of blankers fordeflecting one or more of the beamlets. The beamlets pass through mirror143 and arrive at beam stop array 118, which has a plurality ofapertures. The beamlet blanker array 117 and beam stop array 118 operatetogether to switch the beamlets on or off, by either blocking beamletsor letting them pass. The beamlet blanker array 117 can deflect abeamlet so that it will not pass through the corresponding aperture inbeam stop array 118, but instead will be blocked. If beamlet blankerarray 117 does not deflect a beamlet, then it will pass through thecorresponding aperture in beam stop array 118. The undeflected beamletspass through the beam stop array, and through a beam deflector array 119and projection lens arrays 120.

Beam deflector array 119 provides for deflection of each beamlet 133 inthe X and/or Y direction, substantially perpendicular to the directionof the undeflected beamlets, to scan the beamlets across the surface oftarget 104. This deflection is separate from the deflection used by thebeamlet blanker array to switch the beamlets on or off. Next, thebeamlets 133 pass through projection lens arrays 120 and are projectedonto target 104. The projection lens arrangement preferably provides ademagnification of about 100 to 500 times. The beamlets 133 impinge onthe surface of target 104 positioned on a moveable stage of the waferpositioning system 101. For lithography applications, the target usuallycomprises a wafer provided with a charged-particle sensitive layer orresist layer.

The representation shown in FIG. 2A is much simplified. In a preferredembodiment, a single electron beam is first partitioned into manysmaller subbeams which are then split into an even larger number ofbeamlets. Such a system is described in U.S. patent application Ser.61/045,243, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

In this system each subbeam is split into a number of beamlets which canbe considered a patterned beam. In one embodiment, each subbeam is splitinto 49 beamlets arranged in a 7×7 array. The beamlet blanker arraypreferably comprises one hole with an associated blanker electrode foreach beamlet, to enable on/off switching of each individual beamlet.FIGS. 3 and 4 show a portion of a beamlet blanker array for anembodiment having 9 beamlets per patterned beam, each group of beamletsarranged in a 3×3 array. The arrangement of beamlets in a patterned beamand writing strategies are described for example in U.S. patentapplication 61/058,596, which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

The beam deflector array and projection lens array preferably includeonly one hole and lens for each patterned beam (e.g. one hole or lensfor each group of 49 beamlets making up one patterned beam). Beamletsare typically combined (interleaved/multiplexed) in a group that writesa singe stripe.

Data Path Architecture

A simplified block diagram of one embodiment of a data path 103 is shownin FIG. 2B, and a portion of the data path also appears in FIG. 2A. Theswitching of beamlet blanker array 117 is controlled via the data path.A preprocessing unit 140 receives information describing the layout ofthe device to be manufactured by the lithography machine. Thisinformation is typically provided in a GDS-II file format. Thepreprocessing unit performs a series of transformations of the GDS-IIfile to generate on/off control signals to control the beamlet blankerarray 117.

The control signals are transmitted to electro-optical conversiondevices 143, such as laser diodes, to convert the electrical controlsignals into optical signals. The optical control signals are guidedthrough optical fibers 145. The light beams 146 at the output of thefibers are guide through an array of lenses 147 onto a holey mirror 148.From the mirror, the light beams are reflected onto the underside ofbeam blanker array 117. The individual light beams are directed onto aplurality of optical-to-electrical conversion devices, such as photodiodes, on the underside of the beam blanker array 117. Preferably, forevery optical fiber 145 there is a photo diode on the beamlet blankerarray. The photo diodes operate to activate the individual beam blankerelectrodes to control the deflection of beamlets 132 to switch theindividual beamlets on or off.

The control signals for controlling the individual beamlet blankerelectrodes are preferably multiplexed, so that each light beam 146carries control signals for a channel comprising a number of beamletsthat share one optical fiber and photo diode. The multiplex light beamsare received by photo diodes and converted into an electrical signal.The beamlet blanker array 117 includes logic for demultiplexing thecontrol signals received by the photo diodes to derive control signalsfor individually controlling a number of beamlet blanker electrodes. Ina preferred embodiment, individual control signals for controlling 49beamlets of one patterned beam, are time multiplexed for transmissionover a single optical fiber, and are received by a single photo diode onthe beamlet blanker array.

In addition to multiplexing, the beamlet control signals may also bearranged in frames for transmission and may have synchronisation bitsand additional encoding to improve transmission, e.g. using an encodingtechnique to achieve frequent signal transitions, to prevent using thelaser diodes and photo diodes in a DC-coupled fashion. By forcingtransitions, the clock signal is automatically distributed in theoptical signal. FIG. 12 shows an example of a beamlet control signalwith framing, synchronisation bits, and multiplexed control bits for 49beamlets (of one patterned beam).

Closer to the wafer the beam deflector array 119 is used to deflect theelectron beamlets in the y-direction (and also a small deflection in thex-direction) to achieve scanning of the electron beamlets over thesurface of the wafer 104. In the described embodiment, the wafer 104 ismechanically moved in the x-direction by the wafer positioning system101, and the electron beamlets are scanned across the wafer in ay-direction substantially perpendicular to the x-direction. When writingdata, the beamlets are deflected slowly (compared to the fly-back time)in the y-direction. At the end of a sweep, the beamlets are movedquickly back to the start position of the y-range (this is referred toas the fly-back). The beam deflector array 119 receives timing andsynchronization information from the data path 103.

Channels

The data path may be divided into a number of channels. A channel is anelectronic data path from the preprocessing unit to the lithographysystem. In one embodiment a channel comprises an electrical-to-opticalconverter (e.g. a laser diode), a single optical fiber for transmittingbeamlet control signals, and an optical-to-electrical converter (e.g. aphoto diode). This channel may be assigned to transmit the controlsignals for a single patterned beam comprising a number of individualbeamlets (e.g. 49 beamlets making up one patterned electron beam). Onepatterned beam may be used for writing a single stripe on the wafer. Inthis arrangement, a channel represents the data path componentsdedicated to control of one patterned beam comprising multiple beamlets(e.g. 49 beamlets) and carrying the beamlet control signals for writingone stripe according to the pattern data. A subchannel represents thedata path components dedicated to control of a single beamlet within apatterned beam.

Data Path Processing

The data path 101 transforms the layout data into on/off signals forcontrolling the electron beamlets. As mentioned above, thistransformation may be performed in a preprocessing unit 140 performing aseries of transformations on the layout data, typically in the form of aGDS-II or similar file. This process typically includesflattening/preprocessing, rasterization, and multiplexing steps.

The flattening/preprocessing step transforms the layout data format intoa dose map. The dose map describes areas on the wafer in vector formatand associated dose rate values. This step may include somepreprocessing such as proximity effect correction. Because of thecomplexity of the preprocessing, this step is preferably performedoffline. The rasterization step transforms the dose map into a stream ofcontrol (on/off) signals. The multiplexing step packages the beamletcontrol signals according to a multiplexing scheme.

The process for writing wafers in the lithography machine may be roughlydescribed in the sequence of the following steps. A wafer 104 isinstalled on the stage of the wafer positioning system 101, the column102 is maintained in vacuum conditions, and the beamlets are calibrated.The wafer is aligned mechanically, and per field alignments (offsets)are calculated. The wafer is moved in the +x-direction by the stage andthe column starts writing the first field. When the leading row of holesof the beamlet blanker array passes a field boundary, offset correctionsare installed for the next field. Thus, while the first field is stillbeing written, the lithography system will start to write the nextfield. After writing the last field in a row, the stage will move toposition the next row of fields on the wafer under the beamlet blankerarray. A new run will start while the stage moves in the −x-direction.The direction of the scan deflection preferably does not change.

Corrections

The data processing performed by the data path may provide for a numberof different adjustments to the beamlet control signals to make varioustypes of corrections and compensations. These may include, for example,proximity correction and resist heating correction to compensate foreffects occurring as a result of the properties of the resist used. Thedata adjustments may also include corrections which are designed tocompensate for errors or failures occurring in the lithography machine.

In a preferred embodiment of the charged particle lithography machine,there are no facilities built into the lithography machine for adjustingindividual electron beamlets to correct for errors in beamlet position,size, current, or other characteristics of the beams. Faults such asmisalignment or failure of a beamlet, low or high beamlet current,incorrect deflection of the beamlet. Such faults can be the result ofdefects or tolerance variations in the manufacturing of the lithographymachine, dirt or dust blocking beamlets or becoming charged anddeflecting beamlets, failure or deterioration in the components of themachine, etc. The lithography machine omits corrective lenses orcircuits for making individual corrections to beamlets to avoid theadditional complexity and cost involved in incorporating additionalcomponents into the electro-optical column for making physical beamcorrections, and to avoid the increase in size of the columnnecessitated by incorporating such additional components. However,manipulation of the beamlet control signals and/or additional scans ofthe wafer can compensate for these types of problems. Failures occurringin the data path may also be corrected by manipulation of the controlsignals in conjunction with rescanning the wafer. Various methods formaking these corrections are described below.

Redundancy Scan

The embodiment of the charged particle lithography machine describedabove has a large number of optical fibers and laser diodes in the datapath, a large number of electrostatic lenses and deflectors for eachpatterned beam, and a very large number of blanker elements in thebeamlet blanker array. There is a significant chance that a failure mayoccur in some of these components or that they will deteriorate or beaffected by contaminants so that they do not perform withinspecification. To extend the time between maintenance of the system asmuch as possible, a check may be performed periodically to identifyfailing or out of specification beamlets or data channels. This checkmay be performed before each wafer scan, before each first scan of awafer, or at some other convenient moments. The check may include one ormore beam measurements, including for example as described in co-pendingU.S. application 61/122,591, which is hereby incorporated by referencein its entirety. The primary goal of the redundancy scan is tocompensate for failures occurring in the EO column, since replacement offailed parts in the column is time consuming. However, the redundancyscan may also be used to cope with failures in the data path. Forexample, a failed optical fiber of laser diode in one channel may becorrected by switching that channel off and using another channel duringthe redundancy scan to write the stripes that would have written by thefailed channel.

Where a failed or out-of-spec beamlet is detected, the beamlet may beswitched off so that the stripe that would have been exposed by thatbeamlet is not written. A second scan, referred to as a redundancy scan,is then used to write the wafer stripe that was omitted during the firstscan. In a patterned-beamlet system such as described above, thecomplete channel that includes the failed or out-of-spec beamlet may beswitched off, and the complete stripe of the wafer field that would havebeen exposed by the beamlets of that channel will not written. Afterperforming a first scan of the entire wafer, a redundancy scan may thenbe performed to fill in the missing stripe (and any other missingstripes for other channels with failed beamlets).

For the redundancy scan the wafer is returned to the starting positionafter the first scan, but also shifted to a position which ensures thatproperly functioning channels are available for writing the missingstripes. The pattern data for the redundancy scan is preferably preparedin the lithography system during the first scan to enable the redundancyscan to begin as soon as possible after completion of the first scan.There is preferably no significant delay between the end of the firstscan and the start of the redundancy scan, so data for the redundancyscan is preferably available quickly on the appropriate node.

The lithography machine is preferably able to write successive in-linefields in one scan, and write in both directions in an x-directionparallel with the mechanical scan, i.e. −x and +x direction. The machinealso preferably includes spare beams (or patterned beams), usuallylocated at the edges of the column.

In order to write the missing stripes during the redundancy scan byproperly functioning channels, the wafer may be shifted (offset) withrespect to the column in the y-direction and/or x-direction an amountcorresponding to a number of stripes until channels with properlyfunctioning beamlets are positioned to write the missing stripepositions. This is preferably accomplished by a mechanical offset of thewafer on the stage. To deal better with all kinds of error positions(e.g. failure of both the first and last channel), an offset for boththe first and the second scan may be required.

Multi-Pass Scan

A second scan can also be used to augment the first scan for functioningbeamlets as well as defective beamlets in a “multi-pass scan”embodiment, while still achieving the redundancy scan function. In amulti-pass scan, the first scan of the wafer writes a portion of thefield stripes and a second scan writes the remaining portion of thestripes, to result in writing all of the stripes of each field of thewafer. This principal can also be extended to three scans or four scansetc., although a greater number of scans increases the total time forexposing the wafer and reduces wafer throughput. Thus, a two-pass scanor dual scan approach is preferred.

It is possible to combine a second scan and redundancy scan because thefailure rate of beamlets is typically low. A beam measurement may beperformed before the first scan to detect failed andout-of-specification beamlets. Using this information, a first andsecond scan can be calculated that will result in every pixel of thewafer being assigned for scanning by functioning beamlets. As in theredundancy scan, preferably when a failed or out-of-spec beamlet isdetected, the entire channel that includes that beamlet is switched offand another functioning channel (with all beamlets in-spec) is used towrite the stripes that would have been written by the failed channel.

Various algorithms may be used to calculate the channels to be used forthe first and second scans and the wafer offset required for each scan,to result in all stripes being written by functioning channels. For atwo-pass scan, the algorithm looks for a 50/50 split of channels betweeneach scan that does not use any channels. A “brute force” approach couldbe used to test various channels allocations and wafer offsets to find asuitable combination, or more sophisticated matching algorithms could beused.

Thus, the total exposure current for the wafer is divided between two(or more) scans. In a multi-pass scan, the second scan (or third scan orfourth scan etc.) may be used to scan stripes that were assigned to afailed channel in the first scan, as in the redundancy scan. Themulti-pass scan can also be used in the absence of any failed ormisaligned beamlets. Dividing the exposure current over two or morescans has the advantage that instantaneous heating of the wafer becomesless of a problem. Because the total beamlet current for each scan isreduced, the heating imparted to the wafer by each scan is also reduced.Although the total heat load remains substantially the same, it isspread over multiple scans resulting in less localized or instantaneousheat load.

Using multiple scans also reduces the required capacity in the datapath. When using two scans for each wafer, the data transmissioncapacity of the data path is theoretically halved, because each scanonly requires half of the amount of beamlet control data. This reductionin required capacity is significant because of the enormous datatransmission capacity required and the associated high cost of the datapath. For the embodiment described above with 49 beamlets per patternedbeam comprising one channel, a transmission capacity of approximately 4Gbit/sec per channel may be expected. A machine with 13,000 patternedbeams, each patterned beam comprising 49 beamlets, would require 13,000channels each of 4 Gbit/sec capacity. Thus, reducing the requiredcapacity for the data path is significant.

Writing Strategy

The current industry standard is a 300 mm wafer. The wafers are dividedinto fixed size fields with a maximum dimension of 26 mm×33 mm. Eachfield may be processed to produce multiple ICs (i.e. the layout formultiple chips may be written into a single field) but the ICs do notcross a field border. With a maximum size of 26 mm×33 mm there are 63fields available on a single standard wafer. Smaller fields are possibleand will result in a higher number of fields per wafer. FIG. 5 shows awafer divided into fields, and the direction of writing the fields. Afield is a rectangular area on a wafer, typically with a maximum size of26 mm×33 mm. A GDS-II file describes the features of a field. It is alsopossible to write partial (incomplete) fields, for example by writingfull fields into the partial fields and crossing the wafer boundary.

In a preferred embodiment of the lithography machine, the machinegenerates 13,000 subbeams and each subbeam is split into 49 beamlets,resulting in 637,000 beamlets (i.e. 13000×49). The beamlet blanker arraycontains 13,000 photo diodes and 637,000 holes in an area of 26×26 mm.Each photo diode in the beamlet blanker array receives a multiplexedcontrol signal for control of 49 (7×7) blanker holes/beamlets. The13,000 subbeams over a distance of 26 mm result in a stripe of width 2μm in the y-direction (perpendicular to the mechanical scan) and as longas the field in x-direction. The 49 beamlets of each subbeam write asingle stripe.

The wafer is preferably written on (exposed) by the lithography machinein both a backward and forward x-direction. The direction of writing inthe y-direction (by the deflector) is usually in one direction.

When the size (height) of a field is chosen to be smaller than the sizeof the electron-optical (EO) slit (i.e. the size of the complete arrayof beamlets as projected onto the wafer) (e.g. smaller than the maximumsize of 26 mm), then more fields can be placed on the wafer, but not allof the electron beamlets will be used to write on the wafer. The EO slitwill need to scan the wafer more times and the overall throughput willdecrease.

When a machine is writing patterns to a field, at some moment thebeamlet blanker array enters the next field and starts writing patternsin it, so the machine should be able to write in two fields at the sametime. If a field is sufficiently small, the machine should be able towrite 3 fields at the same time.

A simplified version of a beamlet blanker array is shown in FIGS. 3 and4, with only 16 photo diodes that each receive a multiplexed controlsignal for control of 9 (3×3) blanker holes/beamlets. A blanker holewith an associated blanker electrode is able to block or pass through abeamlet (electron beam). A beamlet passing through the blanker hole willwrite on the resist on the wafer surface.

In FIG. 3 an arrangement of blanker holes is shown for a parallelprojection writing strategy, while in FIG. 4 this is shown for aperpendicular writing strategy. In FIG. 4 the blanker holes for thebeamlets are distributed over the full stripe width, i.e. each beamletis positioned equidistant from the neighbouring beamlets in a directionperpendicular to the writing (scan) direction. This is possible, but forlow number of holes the efficiency of this arrangement in terms of theratio between the beam and beamlet current will be extremely low. Ameasure for the efficiency is the fill factor, which is the ratiobetween the total area of the blanker holes and the area in which theholes for one patterned beam are grouped. The fill factor is useful forevaluating the efficiency of a particular grid geometry in terms ofcurrent in (beam current) and current out (sum beamlet currents). Whenthe area of the group of beamlet holes is smaller, the fill factor willincrease to more preferred values.

A writing strategy that works well for a small number of holes is the“parallel projection” writing strategy (see FIG. 3), where (in itssimplest form) the individual beamlets are interleaved and write thefull stripe width (as shown in FIG. 8B). Such a writing strategy isdescribed in U.S. patent application 61/058,596, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

Scan Line

The beam deflector array 119 will generate a triangular shape deflectionsignal for all beamlets in parallel. The deflection signal includes ascan phase and a fly-back phase, as shown in the schematic diagram inFIG. 6. During the scan phase, the deflection signal slowly moves thebeamlets (when switched on) in the y-direction and the beamlet blankerarray will switch the beamlet on and off according to the beamletcontrol signals. After the scan phase the fly-back phase starts. Duringthe fly-back phase, the beamlet is switched off and the deflectionsignal quickly moves the beamlet to the position where the next scanphase will start.

A scan line is the path of a beamlet on the surface of the wafer duringthe scan phase. Without special measures the scan line would not writeexactly along the y-direction on the wafer, but will be slightly skewedwith a small x-direction component as well because of the continuousstage movement in the x-direction. This error may be corrected by addinga small x-direction component to the deflection field to match the stagemovement. This correction may be dealt with in the EO column so that thedata path does not need to correct for this error. This x-directioncomponent is small because the stage movement is slow in comparison tothe y-direction deflection scan speed (a typical x:y relative speedratio may be 1:1000). However, the effect of this x-direction componentis greatly increased in systems with patterned beams. Firstly, thedeflection speed may be reduced in proportion to the number of beamletsper patterned beam. Secondly, due to the inclination of the array ofbeamlets (as shown in the examples in FIGS. 3, 4 and 9), a skew in thescan lines on the wafer will result in altering the distance betweenscan lines made by different beamlets. A large enough skew may result inscan lines overlapping or changing position with respect to each other.

A scan line (see FIG. 6 at the right) is divided into three sections: astart overscan section, a pattern section, and an end overscan section.Beamlets are deflected along the y-direction. The distance in which thebeamlets are deflected is typically wider than its stripe should write.Overscan provides space for shifting and scaling the positions where thebeamlet writes. Overscan is the single sided surplus. In case of astripe width of 2 pm and an overscan of 0.5 pm (or 25%) this results ina scan line length of 3 pm. The overscan sections of the scan line bitframe hold the bits that are not used for writing a pattern (patternsection bits). Overscan bits are always switched off, but transmittedover the fiber. The pattern section of the scan line bit frame holds thebits that describe the rasterized pattern. In this section the bits areactively switched on and off for writing features.

In FIG. 6 (at the left) a scan line is depicted for the situation whereonly one beamlet is writing a stripe. The path of the beamlet during adeflection cycle is A-B-C. AB is the scan line movement during the scanphase, while BC is the fly-back during which the beamlet is switchedoff. The stripe borders are marked D and E. At the right side in FIG. 6the overscan and pattern sections are identified. The total set of bitsof the beamlet control signal for switching the beamlet over the scanline is called the scan line bit frame.

During the entire scan line the beamlets are controlled by thelithography system. In the overscan section the beamlets will beswitched off. In the pattern section the beamlets are switched accordingto the features required to be written in the wafer field. The bits inthe scan line bit frame for both the overscan section and patternsection represent the data to be transferred to the beamlet blankerarray. The bits/pixels in the overscan section seem to be useless andconsuming bandwidth of the data path. However, the bit/pixels in theoverscan section can provide room for corrections (such as pattern shiftand pattern scaling), provide room for stitching algorithms, and provideroom for differences in y-positions of blanker holes for beamlets whenwriting strategies are used where all beamlets write the full stripewidth (parallel projection).

Assuming a fixed bit rate for the beamlet control signals which controlthe beamlets and a certain pixel size, the scan line can be mapped intoa fixed length bit frame, the scan line bit frame.

In FIG. 7 an example is given for both pattern offset and patternscaling. Scan line A is a normal scan line without offset or scaling,where the beamlet writing the scan line is correctly aligned andcorrectly deflected to expose the desired feature correctly on thewafer. Scan line B is not optimally aligned with the stripe, e.g. due tomisalignment of the beamlet. This can be corrected by adjusting thetiming of the beamlet switching, by shifting the data in the beamletcontrol signal by one full pixel. This can be accomplished by shiftingthe control bits inside the scan line bit frame.

Scan line C is not scaled correctly to fit within the stripe boundariesD and E, e.g. due to deflection of the beamlet that is locally weakerthan normal. Therefore the pattern section consumes more bits of thecontrol signal, while the overscan sections use less. The pattern towrite the stripe needs more bits for the stripe width. From a bit framepoint of view, shifting and scaling can only be done in full pixelresolution. However, the rasterization process is able to deal withsubpixel resolution corrections (e.g. 0-1 pixel). Combining the two willgive allow for shifts such as a shift of 2.7 pixels.

Beamlet Writing Strategy

In the embodiment described above, each subbeam is split into 49beamlets and a channel combines 49 beamlets for writing a stripe. Thereare many different writing strategies for writing the stripe. Thebeamlet writing strategy defines in what way the beams are arranged forwriting a stripe. The scheme could be combinations of stacking,interleaving or overlapping. Beamlets are deflected in two phases: scanand fly-back. During the scan phase, a beamlet is deflected (when it isswitched on) along its scan line over the wafer. The pattern section ofthe scan line bit frame will be filled with the bit pattern for exposingthe desired chip features.

In FIG. 8 several examples are shown as possible interleaving schemesfor writing a stripe using four beamlets. These examples do not show howthe beamlets write in real-time, but show which beamlet has writtenwhich part of the stripe when the writing has finished.

Example A shows stacking the beamlets. Every beamlet writes in its ownsubstripe. For this configuration each beamlet only writes a smallnumber of bits before it flies back. The frequency of the deflectionsignal is high and its amplitude is low. This writing strategy is suitedto the case where the beamlets in a group are arranged so that the groupwidth (number of beamlets N×projection pitch Pproj) is equal to thestripe width (perpendicular projection).

Perpendicular projection is a family of writing strategies. For thebasic form of perpendicular projection all beamlets write smallsubstripes. The width of the substripe is a fraction of the stripewidth. The size of the grid of blanker holes is typically related to thestripe width.

In example B the beamlets are interleaved over the full stripe width.The frequency of the deflection signal is low and its amplitude islarge. The write strategy that fits with the interleaving scan lines isthe parallel projection write strategy. Especially for a relatively lownumber of beamlets in a group, this strategy allows for a smaller groupsize and an improved fill ratio. Because of the small number ofbeamlets, the size of the group on the wafer is significant smaller thanthe stripe because of a reasonable fill factor. For this write strategy(parallel projection) one can calculate a series of pixel sizes that isrealized for a particular number of beamlets in a group and a certainbeamlet pitch. So the pixel size is not an arbitrary value. Extra bitsin the scan line bit frame may be added to compensate for the worst caseoffset between a beamlet blanker hole and the center of the stripe.

Parallel projection is a family of writing strategies. For parallelprojection all beamlets write the full stripe width in an interleavedway. The grid of blanker holes is not related to the stripe width.

Example C is a combination of interleaving and stacking. For example Dthe successive interleaved layers are overlapping like a brick wall.Compared to example C, this configuration will provide better averagingbetween beamlets. At the stripe boundary there are beamlets that wouldwrite over the stripe boundaries.

FIG. 8 shows an example of how the scan lines fill the stripe. Thewriting strategy determines how the scan lines will be written using thepattern of holes for the beamlets on the beamlet blanker array. Oneadvantage of the “parallel projection” writing strategy is itsefficiency. One electron beam is used to make the beamlets. Itsefficiency depends on the ratio of the total area of holes (beamletsoutput current) compared to the area of the group of holes (beam inputcurrent). For a relative small number of holes (49), the area of thebeam (group of beamlets) must be small for an acceptable efficiency. For“parallel projection” the beam (group) size is smaller that the stripewidth.

The pixel size is an important system parameter. The relation betweenthe blanker grid (of holes) and the pixel size is explained below.

FIG. 9 shows a simplified beamlet blanker array. For each beamlet thereis a corresponding hole in the beamlet blanker array, and a blankerelectrode at each hole. The blanker includes electronics to switch thebeamlets off or on by energizing or de-energizing the blankerelectrodes. As a simple example an array with only four holes is shownand the patterned beam consists of four beamlets.

Under the grid five rows of scan line patterns are drawn similar to thepattern in FIG. 8. The five rows are drawn for particular values of K inthe range of 1 to 5. K is a factor relating to the distance between scanlines, e.g. caused by movement of the stage between scans. Different Kfactors can be achieved by adjusting the relative speed of stagemovement in the x-direction and deflection speed (scan phase and afly-back phase) in the y-direction.

In the row for K=1 of FIG. 9, the pattern is shown that will be writtenwhen the stage moves the distance of the group width. The distancebetween the scan lines is equal to the distance between the blankerholes for this projection, i.e. the projection pitch (Pproj). Inpractice the projection pitch will be much larger than the pixel sizeand is a constant (design parameter of the lithography machine). Theother rows in FIG. 9 show what happens to the scan line distance in thex-direction when the stage moves only an integer fraction of the groupsize. K is this fraction.

Some values of K will result in overwriting previous scan lines. Thesevalues of K should not be used. Values of K avoiding this are defined bythe equation GCD(N,K)=1, where GCD indicates the greatest commondenominator, N is the number of holes in the beamlet blanker for onechannel (i.e. the number of beamlets in each patterned beam), and K isthe fraction of stage movement to group size. If the greatest commondenominator of the number of holes in the grid and the value of K equals1, then that value of K is acceptable. When using a value K=5, thedistance between the scan lines will also reduce with the same factor.Using the “parallel projection” and selecting a proper value of K, onecan determine the pixel size (at least in x-direction). A constraint ishowever that only a fixed series of pixel sizes result from this. Thefactor K links the deflection frequency and the stage speed.

FIG. 65 illustrates a writing strategy with factor K=1 in the topexample and K=3 in the bottom example. FIG. 66 illustrates the possiblevalues of K for a patterned beam having 4 beamlets.

An example for a grid of 49 holes (e.g. a 7×7 array) is provided in thetable in FIG. 10, which describes the pixel size (in nanometers) in thex-direction for several valid values of K assuming a beam pitch of 61 nm(which will give a 25% fill rate given a typical hole size). For theseparameters the projection pitch Pproj will be 8.6 nm. The grid width forthis geometry is Wproj=414 nm. Therefore the bitframe is able to handlea writing strategy shift of +/−207 nm.

FIG. 11 is a diagram of an array of nine beamlets showing thedefinitions of some of the terms used, including beam pitch P_(b),projection pitch P_(proj), grid width W_(proj), and tilt or inclinationangle α_(array). FIG. 63 is another example showing an array of fourbeamlets.

FIG. 57 shows a table of pixel size and grid width in dependence on thenumber of beamlets per patterned beam (N_(pat) _(_) _(beams)), the arraytilt angle (α_(array)), the projection pitch (P_(proj)), and K factor. Alarge pixel size is desired in order to reduce the amount of controldata needed to be generated and transmitted over the data path and toincrease throughput. However, the size of the pixels are limited by thedesired CD and the resist properties. In the table, an optimum pixelsize (L_(pixX)) of 3.5 nm in the x-direction is assumed, and the fourthcolumn form the left shows calculated values of K based on theprojection pitch and optimum pixel size. The closest value of K which isacceptable given the number of beamlets per patterned beam, is shown inthe fifth column from the left. The sixth and seventh columns show thepixel size and grid width in nanometers the will result for the givennumber of beamlets per patterned beam, array tilt angle, projectionpitch, and K factor.

A higher K indicates a faster deflection scan speed (relative to stagemovement), and results in a smaller pixel in the x-direction. At aconstant data rate, the pixel will become bigger in the y-direction, sothat the pixel shape changes from approximating a square to a rectangle.

Beamlet Writing Strategy Corrections

The beamlets are oriented at an angle to the EO-slit to be able to writenon-overlapping scan lines. The tilt of the EO-slit with respect to thedeflection direction causes a position difference in the y-direction, asshown in FIG. 11. This position difference may be corrected for. Forevery beamlet the value for the shift is a multiple of the projectionpitch. In FIG. 11 the difference between the top hole and the centerhole equals Wproj/2. These values will result in a full pixel shiftcomponent and a sub-pixel shift component. The full pixel shiftcomponent is preferably always compensated for, but the subpixelcomponent can only be compensated for when using real-timerasterization.

Multiplexing, Framing, Coding, and Synchronization

To reduce system costs, one optical fiber may be used for controllingmany (e.g. 7×7=49) blanker holes. In one embodiment, successive controlbits sent over each fiber are used for controlling successive blankerholes of the beamlet blanker array (i.e. for controlling a series ofbeamlets). In one embodiment, each fiber comprises a channeltransmitting control information for 49 subchannels, for control of 49beamlets on a single patterned beam. This control information can firstbe buffered before being applied to the blanker electrodes for eachbeamlet, or the control information and be applied directly withoutbuffering. A buffer could be provided on the beamlet blanker array forthis purpose. A schematic diagram of a data path withinterleaved/multiplexed subchannels is shown in FIG. 55, and a schematicdiagram of a demultiplexing scheme is shown in FIG. 56, usingrow-selectors and column selectors to decode the multiplexed subchannelto separate the individual control bits for each beamlet.

For synchronization purposes and to indicate which bit in the controlinformation stream belongs to which beamlet, some kind of framing ispreferably used, as shown in the example in FIG. 12. In this example,frame start indicator bits (in this example 7 bits) are used in arecurring pattern to which a framer on the beamlet blanker willsynchronize.

When a DC balanced sequence is required for the use of AC coupledoptical transmitters and automatic threshold adjustment on the photodiode side, some kind of encoding is preferably used. One example is forinstance 8 b/10 b coding. This will however result in a higher bitrate,with 8/10 bit coding adding 25% to the bitrate.

Framing and encoding of the signal can also be combined, e.g. by usingspecific encoded words to mark the start of a frame.

Each channel will carry data for a number of individual beamlets (e.g.49 beamlets). The information will be transmitted in a serial mannerfrom the data path to the blanker. Depending on the demultiplexing andsynchronization implementation on the blanker, there may be a need tocompensate for a “blanker timing offset” resulting from the blankerreceiving control information for different beamlets at different timesdue to the serial data transmission. There are several beamletsynchronization options possible. The synchronization implementationmainly depends on the possibility for implementation on the blanker.

Synchronization of the beamlets may be performed in different ways, forexample synchronize all beamlets to one synchronization signal,synchronize all beamlets in a column, synchronize all beamlets in a row,or do not synchronize the beamlets. For an embodiment with 49 beamletsper patterned beam arranged in a 7×7 array, to synchronize all beamletsto one synchronization signal the control data for 49 beamlets may bebuffered and applied synchronously to each of the 49 blanker electrodesfor switching the beamlets. To synchronize all beamlets in a column, thecontrol data for 7 channels in a each column may be buffered andsynchronously applied to the 7 blanker electrodes for that column ofbeamlets. To synchronize all beamlets in a row, the control data for 7channels in a each row may be buffered and synchronously applied to the7 blanker electrodes for that row of beamlets. When no synchronizationis performed, the control data of all 49 beamlets may be directlyapplied to the blanker electrodes as the data is received by theblanker.

For column, row or no synchronization, individual beamlet pixel timingwill be different. When there are timing differences between beamlets,the differences can be compensated for by shifting pixels in they-direction. This shift will always be in the subpixel range.Compensation is only possible when rasterization is executed inreal-time because the shift depends on the row-beamlet binding.

Stitching

Because a field is written by multiple beams, stitching is preferablyused between parts of the field written by the different beams. Astitching error (shift of the pattern written by one beam with respectto the pattern written by the neighboring beam) results in two types oflithographic error: critical dimension (CD) error (lines too thick ortoo thin at the stitching boundary) and overlay error. For the overlayerror, 5 nm is typically allowed. The stitching approaches are methodsto get rid of the CD error resulting from stitching errors. Differentstitching strategies may be used. These are, for example no stitching,ragged edges, soft edges, and smart boundaries.

For a no stitching strategy one expects that no special means areneeded, except for good alignment of beams. One beam ends where theother beam starts. In case of misalignments, lines will appear where thedose was to low or too high. The beam spot will average this effect tosome degree. However, no stitching is not preferred.

A ragged edges stitching strategy is described for example in US patentpublication 2008/0073588, which is hereby incorporated by reference inits entirety.

For a soft edges strategy the writing ranges of the beams will overlap.FIG. 58B shows a diagram illustrating a soft edges strategy. Thepatterns fade out (before dithering) at both ends where two beams write.This strategy has the effect that errors are spread over an area, shownas the 1 μm soft edge in the diagram. A side-effect of this strategy isthat certain pixels could be written double (i.e. with 200% dose).Because of the relatively large beam size, the dose will be spread amongseveral pixels.

The smart boundary strategy defines an overlapped write range, but onlylets one beam write in this area. FIG. 58A shows a diagram illustratinga smart boundary strategy. In the example shown, a 100 nm overlappedwrite range is used, e.g. 25 pixels with 4 nm pixels. Critical parts ofthe features of the pattern data at or near the boundary between twostripes or fields will be identified and placed into one stripe or theother. This results in the actual writing boundary between two stripesbeing moved to avoid crossing a critical part of a feature, so thatcritical features will always be written by a single beam.

A soft edge stitching strategy is where both boundaries fade outsmoothly into the area of the next stripe. For a soft edge stitchingstrategy, a maximum overscan length of 0.5 μm may be used. If astitching error of 5 nm occurs, this results in a 100% dose error in anarea of 5 nm×line width. If the stitching overlap is 1 μm, this 100%dose error is reduced to 100%×5 nm/1 μm=0.5%. The total dose errorbudget may be set to 3%, and 0.5% dose error is a reasonable budget togive to stitching errors from this dose error budget.

The stitching methods (soft edges or smart boundaries) and the overscanlength may be selection per scan. Reducing the overscan length wouldresult in a higher throughput of the machine. The user is preferablyable to select either the soft edges or smart boundary stitchingstrategy and the size of the soft edge.

Reduction in Required Data Path Capacity

The use of a multi-pass scan with two scans results in the lithographymachine writing at half its maximum capacity. This reduction of thewriting capacity enables a significant decrease the amount of hardwarerequired for the data path.

A channel is a unit of work in the data path. A channel is able to writeone stripe during a scan. The elements of the data path involved inreal-time processing are: fast memory, processing unit, laser, fiber,and blanker. Because only 50% of the channels are active for one scan,the number of processing units might be reduced by approximately thesame factor.

Reduction of the processing units streaming fewer channels at the sametime has the following advantages: less logic cells required perchannel, hard limit on fast memory bandwidth required per node ofchannels, and a possible reduction of fast memory storage size required.Reducing the number of processing units also has disadvantages: theremust be a way to connect the processing units and the laser for theappropriate channel, and a new constraint might let scans fail,especially in case of a large number of subsequent (cluster) channelerrors.

The concept of a node is used in the following description. A node has Y(optical) channels connected and has available X processing units. FIG.13 shows a model for such a node. The electrical to optical (E/O)converters that are commercially available typically contain 12 channels(i.e. Y=12). The E/O converter (e.g. laser diodes) convert theelectrical control data form the processing units to optical datatransmitted over optical fibers to the blanker of the lithographymachine. The processing units (e.g. field programmable gate arrays,FPGA's) driving the E/O converters contain X number of channels. An X*Ycrosspoint may be used to switch any of the processing units to any ofthe O/E converters. The X*Y crosspoint is a separate device or isintegrated in the processing units. With the crosspoint it is possibleto route any of the processing unit outputs (X) to any of the data pathoutputs (Y).

In case some optical channel(s) fail, first the possibilities for ashift between the first and second scan need to be determined where allstripe positions are covered by at least one proper working channel.When the possible shift positions are known, it is determined whetherthe available processing units are allocated between the scans and cover100% of the stripes.

In FIG. 14 the channel positions per scan are shown in a conceptualdiagram. The stripes as shown in FIG. 14 (blue) are written with thisparticular combination of channel errors and the two individual shiftvalues. It is important to distinguish between overlapped andnon-overlapped channel positions. For a stripe at an overlapped channelposition to be written correctly, a working channel at this position forone of the scans must available. For non-overlapped channel positions, ashift of the wafer between the first and second scan will result in tworegions where it is only possible to write the stripe in one particularscan. A failed channel in this region will break the sequence of goodchannels. The left most channel error (see red arrow pointing to it inthe figure) forces the stripes to start at its right side. At the leftthe channels cannot be used. Typically shifting is used to get theoverlapped region to be free of errors (using two scans) and somechannels in the overlapped region may be used to reach the requirednumber of stripes to write.

The probability of not being able to write a position in thenon-overlapped region is relatively high compared to the probability ofnot being able to write a position in the overlapped region. Thereforetypically the sequences of “good channels” in the non-overlapped regionare short. Therefore covering 13000 stripes in two scans using 12870channels will be difficult because it depends too much on theavailability of relatively large sequences of good channels in thenon-overlapped regions. Covering 13000 stripes in two scans using 13130channels will be much easier because its success will not depend much onthe non-overlapped regions. In practice it is likely that the fullsequence of stripes is found in the overlapped region.

When reducing the number of processing units a new constraint isintroduced. Besides finding appropriate shifts, a successful allocationof processing units to channels for the first and second scan must befound. In FIG. 15 an example of this is shown. For this example weassume nodes that manage 5 channels and 3 processing units. The whitedots indicate that channels are switched off, while black dots indicatechannels that are used and a processing unit is allocated. The red crossindicates channel errors. One can verify that no node violates theconstraint of having maximum three processing units active in a node fora particular scan.

FIG. 16 shows a consequence of using less processing units than channelsfor the non-overlapped regions. The drawing shows the maximum sequenceof good channels is obtained with the constraint of three processingunits per five channels for a node. The maximum length equals two timesthe number of processing units per node. For other shift values (theshift of FIG. 16 is the ideal one) the useful sequence in thenon-overlapped region will be substantial smaller (see what happens whenthe shift is increased by one). Thus the channels in the non-overlappedregion are even less useful than before (not considering reducing theamount of processing units).

Besides a worse utilization of channels in the non-overlapped regions,another weakness based on the same constraints turns up in theoverlapped region. In the overlapped region, reducing the number ofprocessing units per node translates in sensitivity for sequences oferrors (error clusters). For a configuration of 7 processing units pernode of 12 channels, clusters of twice the number of processing unitsplus one will result in a failing allocation. In case the cluster ismapped on a single node, the allocation will fail for clusters of sizeprocessing units plus one. Whenever handling clusters is a realbottleneck, there is still a possibility of scaling up the node size(e.g. 24 channels and 14 processing units). This will reduce thesensitivity for big clusters. It is important that the system is robustagainst channel errors up to a certain level. Also in case of reducingthe processing units, the robustness against channel errors ismaintained at a reasonable level.

Key parameters for the concept of a redundancy scan are the number ofstripes, number of channels, expected number of error channels, expectedsize of error clusters, number of channels per node, and number ofprocessing units per node. After identifying channel errors, the systemwill find possible shift combinations that result in ‘good’ sequences ofa length equal or greater than the number of stripes needed. A ‘good’sequence consists of either ‘good’ channel positions in non-overlappedregions or positions in the overlapped regions where at least one of thechannels is ‘good’. This process will result in a list of shifts and thestart and size of the ‘good’ region.

In case of a one-to-one relation between channels and processing units(i.e. no reduction in data path capacity) a successful wafer shift isthe condition for success. In case of less processing units thanchannels a successful allocation is an additional requirement. Anallocation is successful when all stripe positions are written by one ofthe two scans using only ‘good’ channels. Per scan, nodes can notallocate more processing units than available.

A possible allocation strategy first allocates channels that must writecertain stripe positions. These positions typically are positions innon-overlapped regions and positions in overlapped regions of one scanthat correspond to error channels in the other scan. In case any nodeneeds more processing units than available, the allocation attempt willfail.

Starting from one side, the allocation proceeds iteratively through thestripe positions. Processing units are allocated from nodes that willleave scope the earliest. In case such a node is fully allocated, thenode from the other scan should allocate a processing unit for writingthe position. In case any node needs more processing units thanavailable, the allocation attempt will fail. Other strategies may beused that deliver better results, finding allocation possibilities incases previously rejected.

Typical reasons for failure of an allocation scheme are failingconstraints in the non-overlapped region, no spare processing units, andlarge clusters of errors. Particular shift values in combination witherror channels in particular locations often result in a failingallocation. For a dual-pass scan, spare processing units are processingunits in excess of half of the number of channels a node should serve,e.g. a configuration of 12 channels per node and 6 processing units hasno spare processing units.

Large clusters of errors will eventually exhaust the number ofprocessing units in particular nodes. The impact of a cluster dependsheavily on its position because it determines if either one or two nodesshould allocate processing units for writing in the error positions. For7 processing units per node of 12 channels, one node could absorb 7errors at max, while two nodes could absorb 14 errors at max.

FIGS. 17-23 are graphs illustrating the result of simulation experimentsto determine the effect of varying the capacity of the data path inrelation to the capacity of the lithography machine. The graphs show thenumber of successes out of the 50 experiments. A success means asuccessful shift and allocation has been found. Because much of thesimulations is about varying a single parameter, a default parameter setis defined which are used unless specified otherwise: number ofstripes=13000; number of channels=13130; number of processing units pernode=7; and number of channels per node=12.

Nodes of 12 channels using 7 processing units are referred to as a 12/7configuration. In FIG. 17, the effect of different number of processingunits per node is shown, assuming no large error clusters (only smallnatural clustering). The 12/6 configuration is the lower limitconsidered for the reduction because the configuration of 5 processingunits per 12 channels will always fail. The 12/12 configurationeffectively is the configuration without any reduction of processingnodes. Its success only depends on finding a successful shift (noallocation restriction). The simulation results show that the robustnesswill slightly decrease for the 12/6 and 12/7 configurations compared tothe 12/12 configuration.

FIG. 18 focuses on the effect of error clusters on the sameconfigurations as in FIG. 17. The 12/6 configuration is particularlysensitive for error clusters of size 5, caused by the lack of spareprocessing units in the nodes. One error at a critical location willcause the failure of the run. The 12/7 and 12/12 configurations do notshow a particular sensitivity for clusters of size 5.

The effect of varying the number of channels is shown in FIG. 19.Non-overlapped regions are almost useless in case of reducing the numberof processing units. This explains the poor result for using 13000channels. Configurations with more channels will deliver more shiftopportunities with ‘good’ sequences mainly because of a wider overlappedregion. The simulation experiments show that 13130 channels with 200errors will result in on average 26 successful shifts, while 13260channels would result in on average 41 successful shifts for the samenumber of errors. Using 13000 channels only provides 14 successfulshifts on average. Increasing the number of channels increasesrobustness for the typical 12/7 configuration.

FIG. 20 shows the results when the previous simulation is extended withthe effect of error clusters of 5. No significant effect is observed incombination with varying the number of channels.

As mentioned earlier, robustness decreases when reducing the number ofprocessing units from 12 to 7, and increasing the number of channelsimproves robustness. FIG. 21 presents the results when trying tocompensate for the loss of robustness due to the reduction of processingunits by using more channels. As can be seen, the loss of robustnesswhen changing the configuration from 12/12 to 12/7 can be compensated byincreasing the number of channels by only about 1% (e.g. increasing thenumber of channels from 13130 to 13280).

Note that the clusters used in the simulations were all ‘singleclusters’ of a particular size, which seems to be the worst condition.Other clustering strategies tend to give more positive results. FIG. 22shows a comparison of three strategies: inject a single cluster only;inject as many as possible similar clusters at regular distances (65from start position to start position); and inject as many as possiblesimilar clusters at random positions (however maintaining a minimumdistance of 20 good channels in between them). Note that the fixeddistances between the error clusters create a lot of correlation andwill result in a large amount of successful shifts.

Clusters bigger than the size of 5 will have a serious impact onrobustness when reducing the number of processing units. This can beseen in FIG. 23 where the difference in robustness between the 12/07with cluster size 5 (12/07@5) and 12/7 with cluster size 8 (12/07@8) isapparent.

If error clusters bigger than 5 occur more frequently, alternativeapproaches can be used in combination with reducing the number ofprocessing units to decrease cluster sensitivity. Increasing the nodesize and using comparable ratios such as a 24/14 configuration is onesuch alternative. The effect of this can be seen in FIG. 23, showing agreater robustness with a 24/14@8 configuration than a 12/07 @8configuration.

Randomizing channels over the nodes, or systematically distributing thechannels widely among the nodes, are other alternatives. These willresult in an error cluster corresponding to many different nodes, ratherthan being concentrated in one or two nodes. Writing all the mirrorpositions of the cluster errors will in this configuration not be theresponsibility of 1 or 2 nodes, but many of them. However, randomizingor dispersing channels might however have other negative side effectsbecause the concept of a neighbor (and potentially sharing information)disappears.

Allocation strategy optimization: besides checking allocationconstraints, an important task of the allocation functionality could beto minimize the number of stitches between the scans.

Conclusions that can be drawn from the above simulations are as follows.Reducing the number of processing units per node could significantlyreduce the amount of hardware. Reducing the number of processing unitsper node will slightly decrease robustness. The 50% (e.g. 12/6configuration) is the lower limit for reducing the number of processingunits per node for a dual-pass scan. Configurations close to 50% areparticular sensitive for small clusters of errors (size=5). A 12/6configuration is thus less preferred than a 12/7 configuration, whichdoes not show this sensitivity. The 12/7 configuration seems to be areasonable lower limit for the number of processing units per 12channels. The number of channels is preferably larger than the numbersof stripes (+1%) for a good robustness. Increasing the number ofchannels increases the robustness significantly. Loss of robustnessbecause of reducing the number of processing units per node may beeasily compensated by using an additional 1% channels. Large errorclusters (>5) will decrease the robustness dramatically.

Data Path Requirements

The flow diagram in FIG. 24 shows an overview of the processes involvedin the lithography system and their dependencies. Understanding thedependencies permits an analysis of performance (in terms of duration)and reveals opportunities for parallel execution to increase throughput.An important principal is that pattern data for a scan may be processedand/or loaded into RAM while the previous scan is executed.

Different dependencies and different therefore possibilities orlimitations may occur for different architectures. For example, thedependency between the processes E1 (wafer measuring and positioning)and C1 (in-line processing and/or loading data for primary scan intoRAM). For architecture option A (offline processing) this dependencydoes not exist. For option C it might exist, while for real-timerasterization it will exist (real-time binding of beamlet and scanline).

Typical performance requirements concerning the process: downloading anew pattern from server onto local storage of the streamer nodes <60min; number of patterns to store in the local storage of the streamernodes >=10; time the machine is offline due to loading a new image is<60 seconds; if rasterization will be performed once per wafer themaximum time between updating the correction parameters and being readyto write is 36 seconds (10% of 6 minutes); and scan exposure duration is<3 min.

Timing and Synchronization

The clock and synchronization signal may be distributed to the othersub-systems (such as deflector and wafer stage) over an optical fiber.This has the advantages of galvanic isolation between the sub-systemsand insensitivity to electromagnetic influence. Clock variation can beused to vary dose. However, as dose-variations can be compensated for bychanging the pixel size, clock variations are preferably avoided tosimplify the implementation of the physical part of the data pathresponsible of transmitting the data to the blanker and eliminate thetime needed to re-synchronize after a change in clock frequency.

The advantage of using a fixed clock rate is that the clock no longerneeds to be distributed between the different components of the datapath. With the use of standard phase locked loops (PLLs) (inside FPGAs)the variations in local clock frequencies may be compensated for. Whenlarger variations are required (such as ±10%), special provisions arerequired to be able to synchronize the data path sub-systems.

The data path preferably operates as the clock master for the completelithography system and will provide timing and synchronization signalsto the other sub-systems such as the electron-optical column (deflector)and wafer positioning system.

Corrections

In the embodiment of the charged particle lithography machine describedabove, these are no facilities built into the lithography machine foradjusting individual electron beamlets to correct for errors in beamletposition, size, current, or other characteristics of the beams. Thelithography machine omits corrective lenses or circuits for makingindividual corrections to beamlets to avoid the additional complexityand cost involved in incorporating additional components into theelectro-optical column for making physical beam corrections, and toavoid the increase in size of the column necessitated by incorporatingsuch additional components.

Thus, adjustments to correct for variations in beamlet position, size,current, etc. are made by making corrective adjustments to the controlsignals provided by the data path. Several types of corrections aremade, necessitated for various reasons. These corrections includecorrections to compensate for:

-   -   Variations in beamlet position. Due to variations in manufacture        of the column, such as variations in the exact positioning and        size of holes in the aperture array or beamlet blanker array, or        differences in the strength of the electrostatic fields        generated by the condenser lenses or projection lenses or        deflection electrodes, the beamlets may be misaligned. Such        misalignment may be corrected with “pattern shifting”.    -   Mechanical position errors. These may result in the complete        wafer field being shifted in the x and/or y direction. This type        of field shift may also be corrected with “pattern shifting”.    -   Delay errors in the data path (caused, for example, by        differences in the length of optical fibers in the data path).        This error may be corrected by shifting in the y-direction.    -   Blanker timing offset. As a result of multiplexing the beamlet        control signals, many beamlets are controlled over one channel        and the beamlet control signals are received serially, i.e. the        control signals for different beamlets are received by the        beamlet blanker array at different times. Depending on the        blanker design, different offsets will be experienced for        switching the beamlets on and off, e.g. the beamlets may be        switched in units of rows or columns, or individual beamlets.        Depending on the strategy by which the control bits are put into        effect (the beamlets are switched) this may result in a        particular beamlet being switched at a later time than another        beamlet. The effect of this error is in the subpixel range. The        result is an offset per beamlet.    -   Variations in beamlet blanker array hole position. Each beamlet        passes through a hole in the beamlet blanker array and is        switched by a blanker electrode at the hole. Variations in the        manufacture of the beamlet blanker array may result in a        mechanical offset in both x and y direction in the position of a        hole and thus of the corresponding beamlet, when compared to a        reference position. The effect of this error is typically many        pixels, and the result is an offset per beamlet. The full pixel        (integer) part of this error will typically be compensated for        at runtime. The remaining subpixel (fractional) part can be        compensated for by real-time rasterization.    -   Variations in deflection strength. These may be dues to spatial        differences in the strength of the electrical deflection field        of the beamlet deflectors, this has to be corrected for “pattern        scaling”, “dose correction”. There may also be a beamlet offset        component in deflection differences, which may be corrected by        “pattern shifting”.    -   Variation in control signal pulse duration. Because of different        timing behavior for switching beamlet blanker array electrodes        on and off, the effective dose rate will differ between        beamlets. When not multiplexing the control signals, this effect        is significant (e.g. 10%). In the case of multiplexing control        signals for 49 beamlets in one channel, its significance        diminishes because the transition effect is the same, but the        minimum pulse width is 49 times larger compared to the        non-multiplexed case (assuming 10%/49=0.2%). Furthermore, this        error depends on dose rate. It will be small for writing 100%        dose rate, while the error is maximal at writing at 50% dose        rate.        Global Pattern Shifting

When a pattern is written on a wafer, it is unlikely that the beamletswriting the pattern are all perfectly aligned. To correct for thismisalignment and enable the beams to write aligned stripes, the patterndata is adjusted to compensate for the alignment errors. in This adjustmay be made using software or hardware, and can be done at differentstages during processing of the pattern data. For example, thecorrections can be made to the pattern data in vector format, or inmulti-level gray scale format, or in the two-level B/W bitmap.

Offsets may occur in the x-direction (direction of stage movement) ory-direction (direction of beamlet scan deflection) or both. Offsets mayoccur in a full pixel shift and/or subpixel shift. A full pixel shiftmay be achieved by shifting a number of pixels after rasterization. Asubpixel shift can be achieved as part of the rasterization process.

Global pattern shifting (i.e. a shift of all beamlets in a channel) maybe used for stripe position correction (in x- and y-direction) and fieldposition correction (in x- and y-direction). An example of an x and ypattern shift for stripe position correction is shown in FIG. 25. On theleft of the drawing, a stripe is shown with the desired pattern overlaidin the intended position. On the right of the drawing, a stripe is shownwith a pattern overlaid as it would be written if no correction wasmade. As can be seen, a global pattern shift is required to cause allbeamlets of the channel to write in a position shifted up and to theleft.

Beam offsets are typically done frequently after calibration (once perwafer or field). It can be assumed that beamlets are aligned perfectlywith respect to the other beamlets in the same channel, so that allbeamlets in a channel get the same pattern offset.

Typical requirements for pattern shifting are individual X and Y shiftsettings per channel for global shifting, and a parameter update onceper field. A typical maximum shift range may be +200 nm to −200 nm, witha shift accuracy of 0.1 nm. This correction is per channel for globalshifts because it is expected that all beamlets in a patterned beam usethe same offset values. For a global pattern shift, the channel patternis shifted as a whole independent of the beam interleaving strategies.

Blanker Timing Offset Correction

The beamlet control signals for many subchannels are preferablymultiplexed over a single channel. Depending on the blanker design, thiswill result in the individual beamlets switching to the next pixel atdifferent times. Blanker timing offset correction requires correction inY per subchannel, typically with maximum shift range less than onepixel, and shift accuracy of 0.1 nm. The shift parameter is static,since the blanker timing offset depends on the blanker design.

Blanker Hole Offset Correction

Because of blanker geometry, different holes have different offsets froma certain reference point. The offset in X of the hole is used togenerate the interleaved pattern (see FIG. 9). Its predictable timingdelay will be accounted for in real-time and is not seen as part thiscorrection. The offset in Y relative to a reference (e.g. mid stripe) iscompensated for. The error is split up in a full pixel and sub-pixelcomponent. The full pixel shift should always be compensated for, whileonly real-time rasterization is able to deal with the sub-pixelcomponent. Blanker hole offset correction requires correction in Y forthe subpixel component per subchannel, typically with a maximum shiftrange of +/−Wproj/2 or +/−210 μm (i.e. (N−1)*Pproj), and shift accuracyof 0.1 nm. The correction parameter is static, because blanker holeoffset is a function of the blanker geometry.

Dose Correction

Because of manufacturing tolerance variations in the lithographymachine, the effective dose varies per beamlet. Variations in beamletscan deflection strength can also result in a variation of doseintensity. The dose rate may be corrected using a dose factor: Resultingdose rate=dose rate map*dose factor. This formula describes thecorrection mathematically, but the dose correction is preferablyrealized in the dithering process by adjusting pixel white values and/orthreshold values. For example, when a beamlet is calibrated with a dosefactor of 90%, its intensity is 100%/90%=111.1%. Thus, the white valueused for dithering would be 111.1 if 100 were the default, and ditheringthreshold value would be 55.6 if the default was 50.

Dose correction is performed per beamlet, with correction parameterupdate once per wafer. Typical requirements/values for dose correctionare a pattern dose map of 50%-100%, pattern dose accuracy of 0.2% stepsize, beam dose factor of 80%-100%, and beam dose accuracy of 0.2% stepsize. The resulting dose rate should be rounded to the nearest value.

Pattern Scaling

Beams are deflected during each scan in the y-direction and write apattern from one side of the stripe to the other side. The deflectiondistance preferably covers both the stripe width and two times theoverscan distance. In case the deflection is not perfectly uniform, onebeam is deflected stronger than others and therefore deflectiondistances will be different. Differences in the strength of the scandeflection occur over the surface of the scan deflection array due tovoltage drops occurring across the array. These voltage drops result ina weaker deflection field at the far ends of the array, and thedeflection distance will be shorter for beamlets experiencing the weakerdeflection fields.

This is compensated for using pattern scaling. An example of patternscaling is shown in FIG. 26. On the left of the drawing, a stripe isshown with the desired pattern overlaid with the intended scaling of thepattern feature between the dashed lines. On the right of the drawing, astripe is shown with a pattern overlaid as it would be written if noscaling correction was made. As can be seen, a pattern scalingcorrection is required to reduce the deflection of all beamlets of thechannel to write the feature with the correct scaling.

Scaling may be accomplished by adjusting the bit rate of the data signaltransmitted to the blanker, spreading the exposure pattern over adifferent number of pixels. Due to synchronization considerations,changing the bit rate is not preferred. To avoid this, scaling may bedone by spreading the pattern over a different number of bits/pixels. Itis assumed that the beamlets of the same group have the same deflectionstrength. This is because they are deflected by the exact samedeflector. The pattern scaling factor is thus the same for all beamletsof a certain group.

Pattern scaling requires correction per channel, with correctionparameter update preferably once per redundancy scan reshuffle. Maximumrange is typically 1 to 1.1 (e.g. 2 μm becomes 2.2 μm), and accuracy of0.1 nm/1 μm=1/10,000. Deflection strength is assumed to be the same forall beamlets in a channel because the beamlets share the same deflectorarray, and are more or less in the same position in this deflector.

FIG. 27 is a table summarizing various types of corrections and typicalparameters and ranges. Note that when both a first scan and a second (orredundancy) scan are used, dose corrections are preferably performedbefore both scans.

Dynamic Pattern Shifting

Dynamic pattern shifting may also be provided, to compensate for waferheating. This can be accomplished using an X and Y offset table perchannel with values varying as function of time. Maximum slope of 0.1 nmper 1 ms (equals −10 μm in X) may be used, and an offset table with30,000 entries per 300 mm (wafer size).

Pattern Sizing Correction

Because of differences in the strength of the beamlet scan deflectionacross the surface of the scan deflection array, the deflection distanceof beamlets will vary. This may be compensated for using pattern scaling(discussed above) or pattern sizing correction. Requirements for patternsizing correction are generally the same as for pattern scaling.

Data Path Architecture

The data path receives pattern layout data in a specified format andprocesses this data so that it can be written onto a wafer usingelectron beams. The data path also performs adjustments to the patterndata to compensate for errors in the lithography machine, and providessynchronization signals to the other sub-systems.

FIG. 28 shows a functional block diagram of a data path showing the flowfrom GDS-II pattern data file to bit stream transmitted over the fiber.The drawing also shows corrections occurring in the appropriatefunctional blocks. Depending on the architecture options, correctionsmay be made at different points within the data path processing.

Input Data Format

The input for the data path sub-system will be a pre-processed format(usually derived from an industry standard file format such as GDS-II orMEBES) containing the information of the layout to be “written” onto thewafer. On this industry standard file format pre-defined systemcompensations are applied in the offline process. After offlineprocessing the data will be saved for the next stage of the data path.The data may be saved in a file format convenient for subsequentprocessing, e.g. one file per individual channel.

Dose Map Data Format

The dose map defines areas of a single dose rate, typically using avector format. The dose rate is a radiation intensity per unit of area.It is essential to write the patterns with the proper dose rate,otherwise the written patterns will not appear correctly in the resist.The range of the dose rate may be, for example, 50-100% in steps of0.2%, and the spatial resolution of the dose map may be 10-15 nm. Theareas are non-overlapping, so the lines of a polygons describing theareas do not cross. The areas may be defined in vector format usinglines at angles of 0°, 45° or 90°. In case of real-time rendering, theoffline process may break up complex polygons into simpler ones, e.g.polygons could be simplified so that a scan line only intersects aboundary a maximum of two times. This simplifies rendering in hardware.

Preprocessing

The preprocessing functional is typically performed once per design.This step needs a large amount of computational power to complete. Thefollowing functionality is usually included in the preprocessing: (a)Reading the GDS-II chip design and extracting the information needed fora specific step in the chip manufacturing process. This typicallyresults in a map of polygons for the features required in this step. (b)Applying resist heating corrections to the dose map. This correctiontypically results in an adjustment for the feature positions. (c)Applying proximity corrections on the polygons. This correction willresult in a dose map with many more polygons with different dose ratesattached. (d) Output the dose map for each field in vector format.

Channel Splitting

A channel is preferably used as the unit for further processing. Toenable this, the field dose map is split into a dose map per channel.Polygons are reduced to the stripe area written by one channel. Thestripe area preferably extends beyond the borders of the stripe, toaccount for stitching strategy and dithering startup artifacts. If a“smart boundary” stitching strategy is used, where critical features areassigned to a single channel/stripe, then the critical features polygonson the stripe boundary are assigned to a particular channel whensplitting up the dose map.

Channel Rendering

Rendering is the first step of the rasterization process. Shapeinformation and dose information is rendered in pixels. FIG. 29 showslayout pattern features overlaid on a stripe to illustrate a renderingprocess. The shape information and dose information are described invector format in the dose map and are usually field based. The pixelboundary values in X are fixed by the starting point of the machine(assume also that the first row will be written by beamlet 0). This willdetermine the relation between all pixel X coordinates (pix X idx inFIG. 29) and the corresponding beamlet (beamlet idx in FIG. 29) thatwill write the scan line. A scan line is a row of pixels in the Ydirection.

From the typical X position of a field on a wafer and its X offsetdetermined from a runtime metrology process, one can determine the firstscan line (first field pixel row) of a particular field. Pixels and thefield origin in this example are not aligned. Therefore “sub pix offs X”defines the offset from the left pixel X boundary where the field originstarts (as a reference for the vector format).

The pixel size in Y, the stripe width, overscan and pattern scaling willresult in an integer number of pixels which are needed. One extra pixelmay be added to allow for sub pixel shift. The pattern scaling factorwill be the same for all beamlets and therefore all pixels will be ofthe same Y size.

A shift can always be split into an integer part (full pixel shift) anda fractional part (sub pixel shift). Full pixel shifts can be realizedby shifting pixels in the bit frame. Subpixel shifts cannot be realizedthis way, but can be done by the rendering/dithering process. Shifts inY direction are global (i.e. a global pattern shift in Y direction) ordedicated per beamlet (e.g. beam position or blanker timing offsetcorrection). The rendering process should know which beamlet writes ascan line and shift (subpixel) the appropriate scan line pixels. Beforerendering, the pixels is shifted so they are aligned with the “stripevec ref Y” (see zoom-in A in figure) line which is the baseline in ydirection for the vector format descriptions of features and dose.

Because the relation between the beamlets and the pixel X index is onlyfixed when starting the scan, subpixel shifts can only be dealt withreal-time rendering. Offline rendering will always assume subpixelshifts of zero.

Channel Dithering

Dithering is the second step of the rasterization process. Withdithering, a particular dose rate is realized by a switching sequencefor a subchannel. Dithering essentially quantizes the multi-levelgrayscale pixels into two-level black/white pixels, and propagates thequantization errors in each pixel to neighboring pixels and forcelocally a particular average dose rate. FIG. 30 illustrates thisprocess. Dithering techniques are typically used for realizinggrayscales or color variations when printing. Some well known algorithmsare error diffusion (2×2 matrix) and Floyd Steinberg (2×3 matrix).

Dithering is performed in one or two (serpentine) directions. Ditheringalgorithms typically need some pixels to warm up. Therefore the stripewidth is extended with small margins for a better result.

For lithography purposes some improvements may be made. One improvementis that error propagation is preferably not propagated to zero-valuedpixels. The error value should either be propagated in another directionor discarded. It is not useful to propagate a quantization error topixels where a dose of zero is wanted. One should see this also in thelight of reasonable values for CD and pitch. In case of a transitionfrom a gray value to a zero value this guaranties that more zero pixelswill follow.

The dithering process translates the grayscale pixels into black/whitepixels. Because the dithering process must propagate the quantizationerror to its neighbor pixels, it also deals with the subpixel shift perscan line. FIG. 30 illustrates this process. To propagate thequantization error in an accurate way, error propagation to another scanline is not trivial because the scan lines are not aligned. Thequantization error may be propagated on the basis of the amount ofoverlap between the neighboring pixels, so that pixels with a greateroverlap receive a greater proportion of the propagated quantizationerror. An alternative and simpler strategy is to propagate the erroronly to the neighbor that has the biggest overlap.

The dose that is used for the dithering process preferably results fromthe dose rate from the rendering process, the dose factor per beamlet,and the scaling factor for the channel. The dose factor is preferablyset per beamlet. Therefore the dithering module should also know thescan line to beamlet binding (“subbeam idx” in FIG. 30).

The dithering process will result in an on/off state for all pixels ofthe stripe. Before further processing the optional margin pixels areremoved. Margin pixels are not needed in case of soft edges becausethere is already a smooth fade in and out at the stripe borders.

Depending on the architecture option, corrections are known or areunknown during the dithering process. For offline dithering subpixelshift cannot be done and the pixels will be aligned in Y direction.

For the dithering process the threshold is preferably always half of the‘white value’, because the white value will deviate from the defaultbecause of beamlet dose corrections.

Channel Framing and Multiplexing

This process performs various tasks after dithering. The dithered pixelbits are projected into the scan line bit frame. Beamlet specific fullpixel shifts may be performed in this operation. The appropriate bitsare then assembled for a single deflection scan.

As mentioned earlier for the rendering process, the full pixel shift inY direction may be done at a later stage. The pixels of the b/w bitmapare placed in their scan line bit frame. This bit frame is typicallywider than the bitmap width because it makes allowance for shiftingspace. FIG. 31 illustrates this process. The vertical arrows indicatethe full pixel shifts relative to a line of zero shift. If the pixelsstart on this line (like the left most scan line in the scan line bitframe in FIG. 31) its full pixel shift is zero and the pixels areperfectly centered in the scan line bit frame.

The next step of assembling the bits of the deflection scan frame isshown in FIG. 32. This step is necessary to adapt to the correct writingstrategy and present the bits that the blanker needs at the rightmoment. As an example, FIG. 32 shows the different beamlet positions inthe bottom left part of the drawing for parameters N=4 and K=3. Thelocations are shown for different subsequent deflection scans: n, n+1,n+2 and n+3. At this step the scan line to beamlet mapping alone is notgood enough. For this step we should know both the beamlet index and thedeflection scan index. All bits for a particular deflection scan indexare packed into a single deflection scan bit frame. In FIG. 32, the twobottom rows are filled with characters to trace the pixel position inthe deflection scan bit frame.

Channel Encoding

As a last (optional) step, the deflection scan bit frame will be encodedto improve transmission of the data.

Data Flow

FIG. 33 is a schematic block diagram showing major data processing andstorage elements of a data path, comprising an Offline Processing &Central Storage Unit (server), several Pattern Streamer Nodes, and aBlanker Chip (beamlet blanker array).

The Offline Processing & Central Storage Unit processes the input layoutdata (e.g. in GDS-II format) and generates input files for the stripes.According to the allocation of channels to stripes for each scans, thestripe data needs to eventually end up at the correct Pattern StreamerNode.

The Pattern Streamer Nodes contain both disk and RAM storage. The diskstorage is used to store the input data for planned patterns, and theRAM stores the data needed by the Processing Units, which are streamingthe current pattern.

Depending on the architecture option, the input data from the server isthe same as the input data for the processing units. This is true foroffline and real-time rasterization. For offline rasterization, a bitmapis received from the server and forwarded to the Processing Units. Forreal-time rasterization, input data in vector format is received fromthe server and forwarded to the Processing Units. The Processing Unitswill convert the vector format into bitmaps. For the inline architectureoption, the input data in vector format is converted into bitmaps forthe Processing Units.

Architectural Options

The functional units of the data path are shown in FIG. 28: (1)preprocessing, (2) channel splitting, (3) channel rendering, (4) channeldithering, (5) subchannel mapping and (6) channel multiplexing andencoding.

Preprocessing and channel splitting are preferably executed offline, andsubchannel mapping, and channel multiplexing and encoding are preferablyexecuted in real-time. However, the rasterization (comprising channelrendering and channel dithering) may be executed offline, inline, or inreal-time. The architecture options discussed below are: (A) offlinerasterization, (B) inline rasterization and per field offsets, (C)inline rasterization and aligned fields, (D) real-time rasterization.

In one embodiment of a lithography system the following requirements ofthe lithography system are defined which influence the data patharchitecture: Max field size of 26 mm×33 mm (y, x) and writing time perfield of 2.5 seconds, plus another 2.5 seconds for second pass; 13,000fibers/channels/stripes and 637,000 electron beamlets (13,000×49beamlets per channel); Stripe width of 2 μm and overscan width (singlesided) of 1.15 μm (comprised of 0.2 offset range (+/−200 nm)+0.2 scalingrange (10% of stripe width)+0.5 soft edge (0.5 μm single sided)+0.25writing strategy (assuming Wproj=420 nm: single sided Wproj/2=210 μm));Max. deflection width of 4.3 μm (deflection frequency depends on writingstrategy and drive speed); Typical pixel size of 3.5 nm, and pixel sizerange of 2 nm-6 nm (⅓ to 3×(typ. pixel size)²); Dose grid resolution of10-15 nm; Smallest pitch of 64 nm, smallest CD for lines of 22 nm, andsmallest CD for holes of 32 nm; Input resolution of 0.25 nm andrasterization resolution of 0.1 nm.

Data pattern storage size on pattern streamer >10 patterns; time toupdate new correction parameters and be ready to start writing a newwafer 36 sec; upload time from server to pattern streamer <60 minutes;image from local storage into fast memory <60 sec (separate processstep) and <6 minutes (during writing); and processing node of 12channels with 7 processing units.

The lithography system is preferably able to deal with both positive andnegative resist. The characteristics of the resist are preferably dealtwith in the offline processing of the data path and the remaining partof the data path should not need to know about it. For writing a singlewafer two passes may be used, a primary pass and a second or redundancypass. The combination of the two will write all 13,000 stripes on thewafer.

Option A: Off-Line Rasterization

FIG. 59 shows an embodiment using off-line rasterization. The GDS-IIformat pattern data undergoes off-line processing, including proximityeffect correction and resist heating correction. If smart boundaries areused, the boundaries are calculated at this stage. Rasterization(rendering and dithering) are performed to convert the vector patterndata to a two-level black/white bitmap, which is the tool input dataformat for this embodiment (i.e. the data format for transmission to thelithography system). This off-line processing is performed once for agiven pattern design, for one or more batches of wafers.

Next, in-line processing of the tool input data is performed to generatethe pattern system streaming (PSS) format, which is also in B/W bitmapformat. The in-line processing is typically performed in software. ThePattern streamer then processes the PSS format data to generate blankerformat data, ready for transmission to the beamlet blanker array. Thisprocessing is typically performed in hardware, and may includecorrections involving a full pixel shift in the X and/or Y direction forbeam position calibration, field size adjustment, and/or field positionadjustment. This processing may be performed per field. The blankerformat pattern data is then transmitted to the lithography system forexposure of the wafer.

In this architecture option much of the work is done off-line.Rasterization will be executed offline and once per design. For thisoption input data for the lithography system is a stripe patterndescription in a black/white (B/W) bitmap format. The bitmap isprocessed in real-time. Therefore only the corrections provided by stage5 (channel framing and multiplexing, see FIG. 34) are available. Thecorrections of stage 5 are the full pixel shift corrections, which mayinclude global pattern shifting in X and Y directions per channel,blanker timing offset (Y direction), and blanker hole offset (Ydirection).

The X offset has influence on beamlet to row mapping (blanker holeoffset and blanker timing offset). The appropriate Y offsets will beadded and rounded to the nearest full pixel.

As a consequence of only full pixel corrections, a relatively smallpixel size (˜2 nm) is desirable to meet accuracy specifications. Thedisadvantage of using small pixels is that more bandwidth is needed thanmay be available for the channel, which may result in a lower throughputor require using multiple fibers per channel.

In FIG. 35 the process flow for this architecture option is shown. Thefocus is on the moment of changing batches. The process flow may beanalyzed to find the intervals in the cycle of the lithography systemthat may be used for loading pattern data, so that these processes mayrun in parallel to maximize throughput. At the central bar the batchchanges from pattern A to pattern B. For this diagram it assumed thatthere is no reason to reshuffle beams and stripes (because of failingbeams). Loading the primary part of the new pattern (the stripes writtenin the primary scan for pattern B) can start right after the lastprimary scan is finished. The diagram also shows that loading the secondscan/redundancy scan part of the new pattern can start relatively lateand should finish when the second scan/redundancy scan for the newpattern should start.

The duration of both scans G and F are typically 2.5 minutes. A totalduration for the processes H and D in parallel may be about 1 minute.Thus, the time available for loading the total pattern equals the timefor both scans and the wafer exchange (about 6 minutes), assuming thatno reshuffling of stripe data among nodes is necessary. A stripe datareshuffle might be necessary when new failing channels are found withprocess D.

FIG. 36 is a block diagram of major elements of a Pattern Streamer Nodefor an offline rasterization architecture (option A). In FIG. 36, eachnode comprises several elements. A node CPU coordinates the processes onthe node and moves data around. A network device communicates with theserver (Offline Processing & Central Storage Unit) and receives thelayout data to stream.

A disk storage unit stores the bitmaps for the processing units. Theremay be several versions of the bitmaps available on disk. Reliabilityand read performance may be improved by using an array of disk incertain RAID modes. The read speed of disk drives is increased bystriping (RAID 0, distributing the data over an array of disks).Reliability may be improved by storing data in a redundant way (RAID 5,N disks: storage size=N−1×disk size).

Processing unit memory (PU-RAM) store pattern data. When scanning, theprocessing units read their pattern data from this RAM. The CPU loadsthe pattern data into the RAM before the scans. The processing unitsstream the pattern data and generate the optical signals fortransmission to the blanker.

The typical dataflow for this configuration is shown in FIG. 37. Patterndata is received by the Node CPU from the network device (1) and storedon disk (2). Whenever pattern data is needed for a scan, the node CPUreads the data from disk (3) and stores it in the PU-RAM (4). Whilescanning, the processing units read their pattern data from the PU-RAM(5).

Important characteristics of this architecture are the size of thePU-RAM, the PU-RAM load time, the disk load time, and disk size. ThePU-RAM load time (the time to load all stripe data in the PU-RAM) willmainly depend on the performance of the disk storage unit. Regarding thedisk load time, bitmaps for new scans need to be downloaded from theserver, and the server may be a bottleneck for communication. The diskload time may be improved by increasing the bandwidth from server tonode or compressing the bitmap data on the server. For the disk size, itis assumed that to overcome the distribution bottleneck (the serverbandwidth), multiple patterns (e.g. 10) may be stored in the diskstorage unit. Depending on requirements concerning availability or readspeed, disks may be configured for a particular RAID level.

In the offline and inline concepts, the reordering and mapping of thepreprocessed pixels may be performed by a processing unit comprising afield programmable gate array (FPGA). This processing unit will allowfull pixel shifts and can reorder the data from memory to be multiplexedtowards the blanker.

Compression may also be used for architecture option A. Possibleconfigurations include: no compression, compressed dithered images, orcompressed grayscale images.

For no compression, the pattern streamer node will store(non-compressed) dithered images on disk. It is also possible tocompress this image on the server before distribution. In this situationthe pattern streamer should decompress the image anyway after receiving,but this does not seem to be a bottleneck because there is a reasonableamount of time for this process.

For compressed dithered images, compression lowers the distributioneffort (communication time) and lowers the RAM size requirement. Forthis solution the offline process must compress the dithered image,while the FPGA should decompress the image internally and process it.Therefore the image in RAM is much smaller. In terms of the functionalunits of FIG. 34, compression and decompression functions have areinserted after dithering as shown in FIG. 39.

Compression may be less effective for the dithered images because theycontain a lot of zero values, and the non-zero areas may be hard tocompress due to variations in dose values. FIG. 40 shows a dithered testimage, using a monochrome (1 bit per pixel) image. The image (FIG. 40)is 8 times the dithered version of FIG. 42 while changing the dose levelevery repetition. By changing the dose every repetition, the compressiontool is not able to utilize the repetition and is less efficient. GZIPand Optipng are possible compression methods. Compression of ditheredimages is not easy and will approximately deliver a compression rationin the order of 1:4 (mainly compressing sequences of zeros). Using acompression ratio of 1:4, the size of a typical stripe image using 2 nmpixels would result in 4352 MB uncompressed and 1088 MB compressed perstripe, and 61 GB uncompressed and 15.2 GB compressed per streamer (i.e.14×). In this scenario, compressing the dithered image will reduce theRAM size to 16 GByte, providing an advantage for load time (disk->RAM ofabout 2 minutes for a single disk) and distribution time (server->diskof about 1.5 hour). The 2 minutes load time fits into a time window forloading in the process flow. The downside is that the FPGA is enhancedwith decompression per channel that keeps up with the real-time datarate of about 5 Gbit/s. In addition, the server preferably compressesall data initially.

For compressed grayscale images, in terms of the functional units ofFIG. 34, the compression and decompression functions should be insertedafter dithering as shown in FIG. 41. After rendering, the offlineprocess should compress the grayscale image, and the FPGA decompress,dither and process the image.

FIG. 42 shows an example of a rendered bitmap of a cell (64×1000 nm@ 2nm pixel). For compressions GZIP and optipng (both open sourcecompression tools) are used. Both methods are lossless. GZIP is ageneral purpose compression tool, while optipng is specialized incompressing 2D images. PNG compression consists of two stages, a 2Dpredictor filter and a GZIP compressor, so that optipng providessuperior compression ratio. Depending on the patterns found in realdesigns, there may be more repetition in a larger image.

Using a compression ratio of 1:40 (PNG) and 2 nm pixels, the compressionrate shrinks the image to a size comparable to the vector format. Usingthis approach however requires PNG decompression to be integrated in theProcessing Unit FPGA. When the bitmap size grows with a factor of 4, thecompressed images grow only a factor 1.3 for GZIP and a factor 2 forPNG. Compression works well in combination with small pixels.

An interesting observation for this approach of using grayscale pixelsis that it potentially allows for shifting and constructing biggerpixels for streaming to the blanker. Values of bigger pixels could becalculated from the smaller pixels by using a linear combination of thevalues of the smaller pixels. The input images could be consideredoversampled. FIG. 43 shows this concept of the small grid of inputpixels and the big output pixels. The example is given where the ratioin pixel size is 1:2, however other ratios are also possible. The FPGAwill uncompress the bitmap and combine several small pixels to form abig pixel for streaming to the blanker. The advantage is that thisapproach will limit the bandwidth on the fiber (big output pixels), evenwhile using small input pixels. The bandwidth on the fiber is considereda bottleneck, and may require the use of two fibers per channel forstreaming 2 nm pixels to the blanker.

Remarks regarding this architecture:

-   -   A dose map is preferably still added to the input bitmap and        used by the FPGA    -   Dose corrections are possible because dithering happens in the        FPGA    -   Shift in X and Y when constructing a blanker pixel from the        input pixels, accuracy depends on actual pixel sizes.    -   Decompression and dithering in FPGA is required.    -   Compression is added to the offline process. It is expected that        compression will increase the processing effort significantly.

The RAM size is decreased with a compression ratio of 1:40. For thisscenario, the FPGA is equipped with real-time unzip logic that is ableto keep up with the rate a grayscale is expanded (

5 Gbit/s).

Option B and C: Inline Rasterization

FIG. 60 shows an embodiment using in-line rasterization. The GDS-IIformat pattern data undergoes off-line processing as for the off-lineembodiment of FIG. 59, including proximity effect correction, resistheating correction, and smart boundaries if used. The corrected vectorpattern data and dose map is the tool input data format for thisembodiment. This off-line processing is performed once for a givenpattern design, for one or more batches of wafers.

Next, in-line processing of the vector tool input data is performed torasterize the vector data to generate B/W bitmap data, which is thepattern system streaming (PSS) format in this embodiment. Thisprocessing is typically performed in software, and may be performed whena new dose setting is set. The Pattern streamer then processes the PSSformat data to generate blanker format data as in the FIG. 59embodiment, including corrections involving a full pixel shift in the Xand/or Y direction for beam position calibration, field size adjustment,and/or field position adjustment as before on the bitmap data. Thisprocessing may be performed per field. The blanker format pattern datais then transmitted to the lithography system for exposure of the wafer.

FIG. 61 shows a second embodiment using in-line rasterization. This issimilar to the FIG. 60 embodiment except corrections for beam positioncalibration, field size adjustment, and/or field position adjustment aremade on the vector tool input data. Because these corrections are madeon vector data, both full pixel shifts and subpixel shifts in the X andY direction can be made. These corrections are typically performed insoftware, and may be performed per wafer. After the corrections havebeen made, rasterization is performed to generate the PSS format datafor input to the pattern streamer.

FIG. 44 shows inline rasterization functional units assigned to processsteps. For this architecture the functional units 3 and 4(rasterization) are executed inline. For this option input data for thelithography system will be a stripe pattern description in vectorformat. The rasterization will be done on demand (per wafer, per severalwafers, per series of wafers). Changes in global offsets or in theglobal dose can trigger the inline rasterization.

An appropriate dose is set by changing the pixel area. The pixel areamay be changed by changing both the X and Y pixel size. The X size canhowever only be changed to certain values (as discussed with referenceto FIG. 10). For fine tuning of a global dose, changes to the Y size maybe used. Assuming a fixed bitrate, the Y pixel size is set by changingthe deflection frequency and using a different pattern scaling factor.

Because the rasterization results will be used for all fields, fieldspecific subpixel offsets cannot be accounted for. Offsets per field arepreferably eventually rounded to full pixel, which is accounted for inreal-time by stage 5 (channel framing and multiplexing).

Corrections may include:

-   -   Field pattern shifting in X and Y (full pixel shifts only).        Parameters updated once per field.    -   Global pattern shifting in X and Y (at subpixel resolution).        Parameter update once per wafer scan or more.    -   Global dose change through pattern scaling. Parameter update        once per wafer scan or more.

Both dose corrections per beamlet and subpixel shifts cannot be dealtwith. The root cause is the capability of shifting in X direction whichcontrols the row to beamlet mapping. To limit errors, this option willtypically lead to using a relative small pixel size (about 2 nm). Thisoption is a special case compared to architecture option B in the sensethat a beamlet will write the same line of every field. In other words,the row to beamlet mapping is fixed and the same for every field.Therefore we can compensate for beamlet specific corrections. Becausesubpixel corrections is rendered properly, the beamlets will write thepattern with greater accuracy. Therefore the pixel size is larger (˜3.5nm), which does not result in a higher optical channel count towards theblanker.

All corrections are supported, however fields are located at idealpositions, and therefore there is no offset in X and Y between fields.The process flow might be different from architecture option A. Forarchitecture options B and C new bitmaps need to be generated frequentlyfrom the vector input files per wafer or several wafers.

F) Primary scan In case the regeneration of the new pattern bitmap theremight be a dependency on the measuring of the wafer (E1). FIG. 45 showsthe process flow in case of a dependency. When this dependency is notthere the process flow will be similar to the process flow of FIG. 35.The dependency is also not there when the information needed for theregeneration is estimated effectively (slow varying process parameter).So the regeneration can start early, but has to be verified after thereal measurement. In case of an unexpected mismatch, the regeneration isrestarted and we will lose some throughput. Finally a consideration isthat in case enough RAM is available, processing could start earlierthat after the primary scan. This would again add 2.5 min to thetimeframe for processing A solution that supports inline processing willneed an extremely powerful processing unit to meet reasonable timingrequirements. For worst case conditions (2.00 nm pixel, max stitching),the number of pixels to render will be 35 Gpixels per stripe. The sizeof the vector data will be 606 MByte per stripe. In FIG. 46 thearchitecture for in-line processing is shown The architecture shows ablock “rasterizer”. This block will be responsible for the inlineprocessing task of rendering the vector format into a B/W image of thestripe. Options for implementing an in-line rasterizer are:

-   -   Offine, processing and control    -   Using FPGA logic. For the real-time rasterization FPGA logic is        used for the same purpose. For real-time rasterization a lot of        resources on the FPGA must be used for meeting the performance        requirements. Using FPGA technology for an in-line rasterization        solution could be implemented with fewer resources than the        real-time version.    -   Using a GPU technology. A Graphical Processing Unit of GPU is a        processor that is typically used for video processing. These        processors is found in consumers systems (desktop and laptop)        for rendering 3D graphics (games, Vista). GPUs are utilizing        massive parallelism. The G80 architecture utilizes 128 thread        processors, while the state of the art card GTX280 utilizes 240        thread processors. The performance of a thread processor is        roughly a fifth of an Intel core CPU. The performance of a GPU        depends clearly on the degree of parallelism in its tasks.        Rendering is a task that is relatively easy to parallelize. The        dithering (in one direction) task is parallel to a certain        extent (diagonal).    -   Using state of the art multicore CPUs. Today's multicore CPUs        are very powerful. An example is Intel's new architecture: the        Core 17 technology. The FPGA solution is obviously a relatively        cheap solution. Compared to architecture option D (rasterization        real-time in FPGA), the performance requirements for this        solution are much more relaxed (2.5 sec for 7 stripes compared        to 6 min for 14 stripes). Therefore the FPGA is much smaller        (and cheaper). Still the feasibility depends on the feasibility        of the implementation of the render algorithm in VHDL.

When evaluating software solutions, the GPU technology would come outbest because the rendering task will benefit from the high degree ofparallelism available in a GPU. The downside is that the GPU technologyis evolving rapidly. This problem of fast evolving hardware has beensolved (at least by NVIDIA) by providing the stable CUDA (ComputeUnified Device Architecture) API. This API fits a large range of graphiccard model and versions. Today there is even a product line for highperformance computing (Tesla). This product line focuses on scientificcalculations instead of gaming graphics.

For this architecture the process is described in the following steps:

Vector format input files are transferred from the server to the harddisk. Before starting the initial scan or after a parameter change, therasterization module should process the input files to produce a newbitmap. The bitmap is stored in the RAM memory of the processing units.When scanning, the processing units read the bitmap data from their RAM.This process is similar for architecture options A, B and C. Therasterizer is implemented using FPGA technology. The logic would besimilar as used for the real-time rasterization option. Compared to thereal-time solution the inline solution is much more lightweight.Therefore fewer logic cells will be needed. For the FPGA solution thereare two options for the dataflow. In FIG. 47 the dataflow is shown wherethe FPGA stores its output directly in the PU-RAM. This solution isappropriate in case the logic of the rasterizer is combined in the sameFPGA as the processing units. In that case the components share the samememory controller. According the process diagram of FIG. 45 theprocesses is able to run in parallel. Potential interference is howeveran argument to separate the FPGAs. Another possibility is shown in FIG.48 where the Node CPU will be responsible for fetching the results fromthe FPGA and storing it in the PU-RAM. In FIG. 49 the communicationbetween a host and a GPU is shown. The host stores the program (kernel)and the data in the DRAM of the GPU and triggers the program. Themultiprocessors fetch the data they need from the DRAM and write backthe results into the DRAM. On completion of the total operation the hostwill fetch the data from the DRAM of the GPU. The interface between thehost and the GPU is typically a PCIe×16 bus and DMA is involved in datatransfers. When using standard GPU hardware the interface between theCPU node and the GPU card is PCI-Express/16. The internal architectureof a GPU (see FIG. 51) shows that it is completely focused onparallelism. This particular GPU contains 30 multiprocessors and 8thread processors per multiprocessor. This adds up to 240 threadprocessors. A multiprocessor follows the SIMD (Single InstructionMultiple Data) pattern and uses on-chip (fast) shared memory for its 8thread processors. To utilize the performance of an GPU architecture itstasks is partitioned in many parallel tasks. The rasterization taskconsists of two subtasks: rendering and dithering.

The nature of the rendering task is that it is relatively easy toparallelize. Rendering a scan line or even a pixel could be seen asindependent processes. The nature of the dithering task is more serialbecause the quantization error is propagated in two directions (on thesame lin in the direction of the dithering movement and to the nextline). However, when dithering in only one direction, dithering isparallelized along a diagonal. Dithering the next line should lag by oneor two cells to process the quantization error of the previous linecorrectly.

Disadvantages of using a GPU include: GPUs are not cheap; considerablepower consumption when it is running (e.g. TDP=200W); and creatingparallel code for the GPU that leverages its power is not a trivialtask.

Multicore CPU solution: When using a powerful multicore CPU as the nodeCPU, the node CPU would be able to execute the rasterization task. FIG.52 shows the typical dataflow for this configuration. The CPU reads thevector input data from the harddisk (3). The CPU will perform therasterization task and stores the bitmap into the PU-RAM (4). Whilescanning the processing units reads the bitmap from PU-RAM (5).

Disadvantages include: expense of the processor; considerable powerconsumption (Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor: TDP=130W); andrelatively low degree of parallelism (4 cores for the Intel Core 2quad-core processor).

For inline rasterization different solutions are available. Inlinerasterization however exposes some common characteristics: PU-RAM size.Inline rasterization requires the bitmaps to be stored in the PU-RAMlike for offline rasterization. Architecture option B needs small pixelsizes (e.g. 2.00 nm, see appendix A.1) and therefore needs to storearound 61 GByte of bitmap data (not compressed). For architecture optionC a larger pixel is used (e.g. 3.50 nm). For a 3.50 nm pixel 20 GBytewould be appropriate. RAM load time. For this solution it is assumedthat only vector input data is stored on disk (total size 8.5 GB).Whenever a new bitmap is needed, the vector input data is read from diskand rasterized and stored in PU-RAM. The disk rata rate seems not to bethe bottleneck in this case. The bottleneck for this solution will bethe rasterizer. Its performance depends on many factors and cannoteasily be predicted. An alternative would be to perform therasterization in an earlier stage. The bitmaps could be either stored inPU-RAM or on disk. Storing the intermediate bitmaps on disk has thedisadvantage that it will be a clear bottleneck for the load time (seearchitecture option A).

Disk load time: Vector input data for new scans need to be downloadedfrom the server. The server will obviously be a bottleneck forcommunication. Options for improving the disk load time are to increasethe bandwidth from server to node or to compressing the bitmap data onthe server. Disk size. Storing 10 versions of bitmaps on the diskstorage unit would imply a storage capacity of 85 GB. Improvingreliability (and read performance) suggests to use a mirrorconfiguration (RAID1) and use two disks of 100 GB.

Assuming that the main algorithms is parallelized to a great extent, arough performance comparison between CPU and GPU is made based on thefollowing characteristics: the Intel CPU core outperforms the threadprocessor with a factor 5; the Intel CPU contains 4 cores; and the GPUcontains 240 thread processors.

Again assuming full utilization of parallelism, the performance ratio(Intel:GPU) boils down to quad-core:GPU=(4*5):240=1:12. In practiceseveral factors will lower this “ideal” rate. Factors are: Differencesin cost of execution (an integer division is rather costly for thisbrand of GPU) Degree of parallelism. To what extent can you writeparallel code. How many threads can run in you limited amount of localmemory. Because of the use of SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data)processors. There are typically 8 thread processors in a SIMD group.This means that the execution path expands because both sides of thebranch are always (serially) executed.

On the other hand multi-core solutions like the Intel processors use ashared cache. Depending on several factors the performance per core willdegrade when more cores are active. In this chapter an estimate is madeof the performance of rasterization (rendering and dithering) using anIntel CPU.

To estimate the performance the render and dither modules have beenimplemented in C++. Only the 00 feature of C++ is used, not anyperformance critical instructions like: new, delete or any advanced datastructures like lists or queues. A 64*1000 nm cell us used as a unit forrendering and dithering. It has been verified visually by comparing thevector format input and the bitmap output that the rendering anddithering is as expected. The Visual C++2008 compiler has been used withoptimizations for speed enabled.

The algorithm used for rendering is the scan line approach. An activeedge table is used to maintain the set of edges that cross at least oneof the scan line (line of pixels. The pixel size used is 3.5 nm(architecture option C). While the maximum of 64 edges is specified, 52(81%) are used as a reasonable average per cell.

For measuring a machine with a modern CPU has been selected. The CPU isa Core 2 Duo (6400), running at 2.14 GHz with 2 GB of RAM running aWindows XP Operating System.

The input vector format used is a specification of a set of closedpolygons in the cell. The dose grid is left out, but the processingincorporates an Y dependent dose factor. Shifting in y-direction forrendering is always 0, but the algorithm incorporates the operations fora scan line dependent shift value.

Optimization of the code is done by measuring code improvements. Normalprofilers did not work because of their limited time resolution. Insteadthe “QueryPerformanceCounter” in the Win32 API has been used. Thiscounter uses the CPUs time stamp counter in ns resolution. The code hasbeen optimized by hand based on the results of theQueryPerformanceCounter. After optimization, the load is distributedover the application in the following fractions: rendering 55%,dithering 27%, and input processing 18%.

A single core of the described machine could executed 100,000 cellrender cycles in 8.7 sec. This translates into 11,494 cycles areexecuted per second. Also execution with two cores almost scaled in alinear way (8.7 single core 100,000 cells->8.8 two cores 200,000 cells).A full stripe consists of 2,200,000 cells.

Therefore one core will spend 194 sec on 1 stripe. Assuming linearscaling, this means that 14 stripes are rendered within 6 minutes whenusing 7.5 cores. The Core 2 Duo (6400) is not the top model of the IntelCPUs anymore. Therefore it would be fair to increase the coreperformance with some factor (e.g. 30%). On the other hand we know thatusing more cores never scales in a linear way. We assume these twofactors will cancel each other.

The performance results are the sum of: the algorithms used; the scale(size render cell); completeness of the algorithms; the particularoptimizations used; the total time spend on optimizations; cache/memoryuse in real configurations compared to the prototype; and relativeperformance of the CPU that will be used in the final configuration.

As discussed for option A, it would be possible to compress the imagesthat are kept in the PU-RAM. The rasterizer should compress its ditheredor grayscale image, while the Processing Unit FPGA should uncompress andoptionally dither it. Architecture B would really benefit fromcompression and oversampling techniques. Using 2 fibers per channel isno longer necessary. Architecture C already uses a relative big pixelsize and will only benefits from compression. This means a smallerPU-RAM and smaller load times. Decompression logic should however beadded to the Processing Unit FPGA. Decompression will however have asignificant impact on the in-line processing effort.

Option D: Real-Time Rasterization

FIG. 62 shows an embodiment using real-line rasterization. This issimilar to the FIG. 61 embodiment except rasterization is performed onestep further on in the process, during real-time processing typicallyperformed in hardware. Corrections for beam position calibration, fieldsize adjustment, and/or field position adjustment are made on the vectorformat PSS format data, and then rasterization converts this to a B/Wbitmap. Because the corrections are made on vector data, both full pixelshifts and subpixel shifts in the X and Y direction can be made.

FIG. 53 shows the functional blocks for this architecture. For thisoption the functional units 3 and 4 (rasterization) are executed on thefly during the runs.

Corrections include:

-   -   Pixel shift (full and subpixel) corrections in X and Y.        Parameters updated once per field.    -   Dose correction per subchannel. Parameters updated once per        field.    -   Scaling corrections for Y per channel. Parameters updated once        per field.    -   Blanker timing offset corrections. Parameter updates once per        wafer scan.

The offline preprocessing system will prepare a vector format for allstripes. The pattern streamer will use this data as input. By renderingand dithering in real-time, the pattern streamer generates the B/Wbitmap. During rendering and dithering, all kind of corrections isperformed. From the BAA/bitmap the pattern streamer generates thebeamlet bitframes, multiplexes data for all its beamlets of a channeland sends the data over the fiber to the blanker chip.

Resources needed for streaming data to the lasers:

The process consists of two steps: getting data from memory andrendering it to pixels in a logical order, reordering the logicallyordered pixels to frames due to the sub-beam ordering. The first stepmay consist of actual rendering of vector data, or simply retrieving therendered pixel data from memory.

For rendering vector data to pixels, each stripe is divided intosubstripes of 62.5 nm in the vector format. For a soft-edge of 500 nm(the maximum), the number of substripes to process is2000+500+500/62.5=48 substripes. Each substripe is rendered in asubstripe pipe. Each pipe will operate at approx 100 MHz, and 48 pipeswill therefore produces the approx. needed 5 Gbit/s.

At the top of the pipe, a FIFO is used to cross the clock-domainboundary from the memory clock domain to the processing clock domain.This FIFO also serves as an intermediate storage buffer, as the memorybandwidth must be shared over multiple strips. The FIFO contains bothcorner data and dose map data. The rendering application can randomlyaddress within the lower part of the FIFO. The FIFO needs to contain atleast three blocks of data to allow some slack to the memory arbiter.Each block of data contains 272 bytes. 3 blocks of data=816 bytes. Astandard block ram contains 18 kbits of data=2 kbyte of data. This meansthat from a datasize point of view each blockram can serve 3 substrippipes. However, from a data-availability point of view, each pipe shoulduse its own blockram on the top.

Each substripe pipe needs some internal FF's and LUT's for processing.We assume that the number of LUT's and FF's available with the requirednumber of BLOCKRAMS is more than the number needed.

Reordering pixels for multi-beam exposure.

At the bottom of the substripe pipe, or directly below the memory portin case of bitmap data in memory, the data is stored in another FIFO.This FIFO needs to contain at least 245 lines of data, which is neededas we write the pixels in 49 beamlets with a K=5. Each line will contain3000 nm/2 nm=1500 pixels (at max). 1500 pixels*245 lines=367,500 bits.This equals 20 blockrams, which is rounded up to 32 blockrams tofacilitate the processing.

The framer/multiplexer reads from these 32 blockrams and forms framessuitable for sending to the laser. These frames are stored in anotherFIFO blockram, which is needed both as an asynchronous boundary betweenthe MGT clock domain and as an elastic storage unit.

Cell Based Input Format

A vector representation is typically used for generating the patterndata, such as a GDS-II or OASIS format. As described above, differentmodes of operation are possible for the charged particle lithographymachine. One mode described above is the real-time rasterization modewhere pattern data in a vector based input format is used and processedby a processing unit (such as an FPGA) in real-time (i.e. pattern datafor a set of fields of the wafer is processed, at least in part, whilethe scan of that set of fields takes place).

A cell based input format may be used for this real-time rasterizationmode. One embodiment of the input format describes two aspects, thefeature layout and dose rate. The feature layout is described using acell-based approach, suitable and optimized for real-time FPGA renderingand dithering. The dose rate is described by a fixed-sized grid coveringthe area of all the features (e.g. the field).

A cell based format for the pattern data can yield a data set having amore predictable size, which is advantageous for streaming the patterndata to the lithography system for real-time and/or hardware processing.Pattern data in a vector format provides a less predictable size percell. Pattern data in bitmap format may be used but would need to becompressed for transfer from a preprocessing system to the lithographysystem. The amount of compression of the bitmap data may varyconsiderably per cell depending on the features present in the cell.Streaming such compressed data to the lithography machine and thendecompressing the data results in an unpredictable transmission rate ofthe uncompressed data.

It is advantageous to know in advance how much data (bits) is containedper cell at maximum, and what compression factor is achieved if thepattern data is compressed (e.g. when compared to the total size ifencoded in bitmap format). The cell based format is designed to havethese features. This is desired because it gives assurance that the cellbased pattern data always fits in a certain size of memory (the memorysize chosen at design time) that is substantially smaller than the sizeof the uncompressed bitmap data. This assurance could not be given for abitmap compressed using general purpose compression algorithms such asZIP. It is also desired because it gives assurance that the cell basedpattern data can be converted into a bitmap in a certain maximum amountof time, which is important in case of real-time rasterization.

Furthermore, if a particular cell covering a certain area of thebitmapped field must be read from the “compressed file” encoded in thecell based format, it is immediately known where this cell is encoded inthe file (no need to search for this area as would be the case if thefile was in e.g. GDSII format where features are randomly present in thefile).

The cell based format is also more suited for streaming to thelithography system because it is arranged per cell, and arranging thepattern data in sequence of cells to be scanned is relativelystraightforward compared to a vector format.

An additional amount of “compression” is also obtained in the cell basedformat by only coding the relative position of features in each cell.This relative position in combination with the location of the cellgives the absolute position in the feature in the field. The relativefeature position has fewer possible values (being limited to the size ofthe cell) and thus requires less bits to define than an absoluteposition with the field.

Relevant parameters for this embodiment of the cell based input formatfor describing the feature layout are summarized below.

Name Value Grid resolution 0.5 nm Critical dimension (CD) 22 nm MinimumFeature Pitch 64 nm Possible line angles n*45 degrees Pattern dose map50%-100% Pattern dose map grid size CD Pattern dose accuracy 0.2% stepsize

For the feature layout format the Minimum Feature Pitch is an importantparameter. The Minimum Feature Pitch essentially limits the featuredensity. It means that a particular transition (e.g. ON->OFF or OFF->ON)can happen only twice within a distance of the Minimum Feature Pitch.

In FIG. 67 an example pattern layout is shown, with features (thelighter colored areas) that comply with the Minimum Feature Pitch (P).

An important consequence of the feature description is that a rendercell of 64×64 nm should describe 4 corners at maximum. When describingthe features in such render cells, the render cell index provides itsbase position. The feature within a render cell can be described usingrelative positions.

The (partial) features within a render cell can be described by itscorners or by straight lines. The line angles may be limited tomultiples of 45 degrees, limiting vector orientations to only 8 possibledirections as illustrated in FIG. 69. Eight orientation codes areassigned for each possible orientation as shown in FIG. 69.

FIG. 68 illustrates the corner concept. A cell is shown containing acorner of a feature (on the right side) and a straight line at an edgeof a feature (on the left side). Both the corner and the straight lineare considered “corners”. Corner A is defined by the position of A (e.g.X_(A), Y_(A)) and two vectors (e.g. defined using the orientation codesEdge1=2, Edge2=4). By definition, the area in the direction of movingfrom Edge1 to Edge2 in clockwise direction is the active area. In thesame way the straight line is described by “pseudo corner” point B (e.g.X_(B), Y_(B)) and the two edges (e.g. Edge1=4, Edge2=0). The location ofthis pseudo corner is an arbitrary point on the line it defines. Againthe area in the direction moving clockwise from Edge1 to Edge2 is theactive area.

Inside cells, corners of the same feature should be matched. FIG. 70shows a simple square feature coded as 4 matching corners in a cell of64 nm×64 nm. The table on the left side of FIG. 70 shows the parametersthat fully describe the feature. The corners are described by theircorner coordinates (X, Y) and the edges describe the corner orientationaccording to the directions defined in FIG. 69. From corner coordinatesand orientation codes, it can be determined that all the corners in FIG.70 describe a single feature.

For processing in a FPGA (or other types of hardware processors) it isadvantageous to have fixed size data structures. This makes it easierfor addressing the cell descriptions in memory and help to keep the FPGAlogic simpler.

FIG. 71 shows an example of more complex feature shapes described by thecorners in the cells. Lines of orientations along 45 and −45 degrees arealso used for defining the features shown.

Feature Edges with 45 Degree Orientations

The Minimum Feature Pitch ensures a maximum number of corners in a cell.When considering features with edges at 45 degree orientations, a cell'smaximum dimension is its diagonal, with length equal to the cell sizetimes the square root of 2 for square cells (e.g. 64×√2 nm for a 64 nmsquare cell). When the Minimum Feature Pitch is less than this diagonallength, there is a risk that more than 4 corners may occur per cell. InFIG. 72 this situation is shown. On the left side a diagram shows aregular grid of square features with a pitch of 64 nm, positioned incell of 64 nm, with 4 corners per cell (the corners indicated by smallcircles). On the right side, the grid of square features is rotated by45 degrees. The highlighted corners show that six corners appear on thecell in the middle.

Several solutions may be applied for resolving this issue:

-   -   Specify a bigger Minimum Feature Pitch for +/−45 degree lines,        at least equal to the length of the cell diagonal (e.g. 64×√2 nm        for 64 nm square cells).    -   Reduce the cell size so that the cell diagonal is equal to (or        less than) the Minimum Feature Pitch (e.g. ½√2×64 nm for 64 nm        Minimum Feature Pitch).    -   Allow for a greater number (e.g. six) corners per cell.    -   Allow for a variable number of corners per cell.

In the following description, the first option above is assumed.

Proximity Effect Correction

Proximity effect corrections are needed to improve the pattern(especially corners) after processing the wafer. Proximity effectcorrections can be addressed by tweaking either geometry or doselocally. It is assumed that proximity effect corrections are done bygeometry changes using small serifs around corners, typically withlength of ⅓ CD.

In FIG. 73 an example is shown of two features with serifs added to someof their corners. There is preferably an option, per corner, to includea serif on a particular corner. As shown in the FIG. 73, one importantconsequence of such a technique is that a serif defined on a corner ofone cell (e.g. feature B serifs in cell 2 in the drawing) may be partlyrendered in a neighboring cell (e.g. feature B serifs extending intocell 3). Or a feature with all its corners in one cell (e.g. feature Ain cell 1) needs rendering parts of its serifs in a neighboring cell(e.g. feature A serifs in cell 2).

Different approaches are possible to address this:

-   -   Share information about serif corners with neighbor cells.    -   Pack extra information (duplicate) in a cell definition as soon        as an external serif corner has impact on rendering the cell.    -   Describe serifs as normal corners. This solution obviously        increases (highly variable) the number of corners per cell.        Dose Grid

Besides features geometry, the dose rate is an important systemparameter, relevant at a micro scale. The dose information may bedescribed by providing a dose grid, containing one dose rate per cell(the dose information may be provided in other ways, for example byassociating a dose value for each feature). The cell size is typicallyequal to or smaller than the desired critical dimension (CD). In theorythe dose grid is independent from the render cell grid.

Two options for dealing with the two grids are:

-   -   Define both in grids independent from each other.    -   Align and optionally integrate both grids.

For FPGA processing it may be advantageous to combine the dose grid andthe render cell grid. The dose grid size is typically smaller than thesize of the render grid. This could be achieved, for example, byembedding 9 dose cells (3×3) inside a render cell. The grayscale valuemay be varied between 100% and 50% in steps of 0.2%. Therefore 8 bitsare needed per dose cell.

A consequence is however that two independent concepts are linked.Whenever the pitch value is changed, it also has consequences for thedose cell size.

Pixel Grid

The pixel cell size and position are preferably flexible. Pixels may benon-square, but will always have the same dimension within astripe/channel. Pixels may be rendered by (worst case) 4 render cells.Per row, different (Y direction) alignment can be used because ofsubpixel shifts.

Input Format Specification

The following specifications are provided for one embodiment. A rendercell comprises a block of 64 by 64 nm containing up to 4 corners andextra information. An edge is a vector starting in a corner, eitherEdge1 or Edge2, and the clockwise angle from Edge1 to Edge2 defines theactive side. A corner is a corner of a feature in the cell. A corner mayhave an angle of 180 degrees when a line traverses the cell without areal corner. A maximum of 4 corners per render cell is assumed.

A specification of corner data for an embodiment is provided in thetable below:

Name Number of bits Rationale X position 8 64 nm@0.5 nm Y position 8 64nm@0.5 nm Edge1 direction 3 8 directions Edge2 direction 3 7 directionspossible, equal to Edge1 is a special case: entry not used Serif size 50 means off. Total 27

To calculate a serif size from its field value, different strategies maybe used, for example a table lookup where the field value is used as anindex in a predefined table, or by calculation (e.g. serifsize=value*0.5 nm, therefore its range is 0 . . . 15.5@0.5 nm, assuminga positive serif size).

A specification of render cell data for an embodiment is provided in thetable below:

Name Bits per unit # units Total bits Corners 27 4 108 Dose map 3 × 3 89 72 Total 180

The table below summarizes the data volume when using the above format.Assumption for this data volume table is that there is no stitching.

Name Formula Result The number of bytes 180 bit/8 23 bytes per cell Thenumber of cells 33 mm/64 nm * 16E6 cells per strip 2 μm/64 nm The numberof cells 13000 * 16E6 209E9 cells per field The number of bytes 209E9 *23 5 TByte per field The number of bytes 16E6 * 23 370 MByte per stripe

There may be opportunities for compression of data. For example, it isexpected that many cells contain less than 4 corners, and that the doserate may be the same value for all dose cells.

Defining fixed sized data structures would ease the task of FPGA design(addressing and loading), but has consequences for memory. Forcommunication and (disk) storage, standard compression techniques couldbe used to compress the data. This works well when the unused recordsare filled with the same values, e.g. all zero's for unused corners.Compression also works for repeating values like similar values for thedose map.

Some design issues for the above embodiment are:

-   -   A maximum of 4 corners per cell may not be not enough;    -   Looking in the neighbor cells for serifs is ‘expensive’ in        processing time and memory and should be avoided if possible;    -   Serifs might be of different shapes than anticipated;    -   A fixed number of corners per is desirable for the hardware        implementation;    -   A high fixed number of corners per cell results in huge data        amounts;    -   A low fixed number of corners per cell results in inflexibility;    -   Coding all corners is over-information from an        information-theoretical standpoint, but significantly        facilitates the implementation in hardware;    -   The resolution of the corners is preferably 0.25 nm instead of        0.5 nm;    -   Coding only half the number of corners may be enough.        Coding Bigger Blocks Together

As a trade-off between a high and low fixed number of corners, onepossibility is to limit the maximum number of corners for a bigger blockof data, e.g. approximately 16 times bigger in the mechanical scandirection. It is assumed that a local maximum number of corners in oneregion of this bigger block will be compensated by a lesser number ofcorners in another region of the block.

A higher limit than 4 on the maximum number of corners is not desirable,due to the increase in memory usage. However, using a lower limit won'tcover all possible cases. As an intermediate solution, the followingscenario is considered: code the data in larger blocks than the currentcells, e.g. a block of 16 cells at a time, and limit the number ofcorners within such a block, where the local maximum number of cornerscan be higher. In this scenario, serifs are coded as corners themselves,which facilitates the implementation.

To implement this embodiment, the following changes may be made to theabove embodiment:

-   -   A block is defined, being 62.5 nm in Y direction (the deflection        direction) and 1000 nm in X direction (the mechanical scan        direction);    -   The Y size of the cell/block is decreased from 64 to 62.5 nm.        This has 2 advantages: 16*62.5=1000 nm, and 62.5/0.25=250 which        can be coded efficiently in 8 bits;    -   The density map can have a resolution of 31.25×31.25 nm ( 1/32        of 1000 nm);    -   The maximum number of corners is set to 64 per block (on average        4 corners per cell of 62.5×62.5 nm);    -   The serifs are coded within the data, as corners themselves.

The following specifications are provided for this embodiment:

Name Value Render A block of 62.5 by 1000 nm containing 64 corners andblock dose information. Edge An vector starting in a corner. EitherEdge1 or Edge2. The clockwise angle from Edge1 to Edge2 defines theactive side. Corner A corner of a feature in the cell. Might also be acorner with an angle of 180 degrees in case a line traverses the cellwithout a real corner. A maximum of 4 corners per render cell isassumed.

A specification of corner data for this embodiment is provided in thetable below:

Name Number of bits Rationale X position 12 1000 nm@0.25 nm Y position 862.5 nm@0.25 nm Edge1 direction 3 8 directions Edge2 direction 3 7directions possible, equal to Edge1 is a special case: entry not usedTotal 26

A specification of render cell data for this embodiment is provided inthe table below:

Name Bits per unit # units Total bits Corners 26 64 1664 Dose map 32 × 28 64 512 Total 2176

The table below summarizes the data volume when using the above format.Assumption for this data volume table is that there is no stitching.This estimate does not take the rounding into account that takes placewhen storing the information in actual RAM.

Name Formula Result The number of bytes 2176 bit/8 272 bytes per blockThe number of blocks 33 mm/1000 nm * 1056000 per strip 2 um/62.5 nm Thenumber of blocks 13000 * 1E6 13.7E9 blocks per field The number of bytes13E9 * 272 3.4 TByte per field The number of bytes 1E6 * 272 274 MByteper stripe

There are opportunities for compression. For example, it is expectedthat many blocks contain less than 64 corners, and that the dose ratewill have a similar value for neighboring dose cells. However,compression also leads to more complicated implementations. The datamight be compressed while being transported through the system.

From an information theoretical point of view, coding all corners withall coordinates is not necessary. However, this drastically reduces thecomputational effort in the implementation. It may be beneficial to alsocode the crossings of the block-borders. This increases the number ofcorners but decreases the computational effort in the FPGA even more.Also, it should be taken into account that the whole process ofrendering should be executable from both ends of the data. Leaving some‘obvious’ information out in one direction, could pose a problem whenscanning in the other direction.

The blocks could be oriented in the deflection scan direction as well.There are two reasons why this should not be done. The parallelism inthe implementation needs to process data in several strips within thestripe, and this would not be possible if the data is oriented this way.Also, the granularity in the deflection scan direction would be 1000 nm,which is undesirable for the stitching. In the current orientation, thegranularity of the stripe-width including stitching areas is 62.5 nm.

Packing the data in memory deserves some thoughts. It might bebeneficial if the data for the dose map is stored in separate bit lanesfrom the corner data.

Using the approach of the previous paragraph has the following benefits:

-   -   The data volume is smaller (e.g. 3.5 TB instead of 5 TB);    -   The feature resolution is higher (e.g. 0.25 nm instead of 0.5        nm);    -   The flexibility is higher, for serifs and for the number of        corners in a local range;    -   The implementation is less complex.        Patterned Beam Lithography System

FIG. 74 shows a simplified schematic drawing of an embodiment of acharged particle multi-beamlet lithography system 1 based upon anelectron beam optical system without a common cross-over of all theelectron beamlets. This optical system is described in detail in theU.S. patent application 61/045,243, which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

Such a lithography system suitably comprises a beamlet generatorgenerating a plurality of beamlets, a beamlet modulator patterning saidbeamlets into modulated beamlets, and a beamlet projector for projectingsaid beamlets onto a surface of a target. The beamlet generatortypically comprises a source and at least one aperture array. Thebeamlet modulator is typically a beamlet blanker with a blankingdeflector array and a beam stop array. The beamlet projector typicallycomprises a scanning deflector and a projection lens system. FIG. 74does not show explicitly the wafer positioning and support structure ofthe present invention.

The lithography system 1 is particularly suited to implement aredundancy scan functionality in combination with a so-called dual ormulti-pass scanning as described herein. Its achieved improvement of theaccuracy of scanning lines onto the target surfaces enables that asecond scan is carried out that fills the gaps left open in a firstscanning sequence.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 74, the lithography system comprises anelectron source 3 for producing a homogeneous, expanding electron beam4. Beam energy is preferably maintained relatively low in the range ofabout 1 to 10 keV. To achieve this, the acceleration voltage ispreferably low, the electron source preferably kept at between about −1to −10 kV with respect to the target at ground potential, although othersettings may also be used.

The electron beam 4 from the electron source 3 passes a double octopoleand subsequently a collimator lens 5 for collimating the electron beam4. As will be understood, the collimator lens 5 may be any type ofcollimating optical system. Subsequently, the electron beam 4 impingeson a beam splitter, which is in one suitable embodiment an aperturearray 6A. The aperture array 6 blocks part of the beam and allows aplurality of subbeams 20 to pass through the aperture array 6A. Theaperture array preferably comprises a plate having through-holes. Thus,a plurality of parallel electron subbeams 20 is produced.

A second aperture array 6B creates a number of beamlets 7 from eachsubbeam. The system generates a large number of beamlets 7, preferablyabout 10,000 to 1,000,000 beamlets, although it is of course possible touse more or less beamlets. Note that other known methods may also beused to generate collimated beamlets.

This allows the manipulation of the subbeams, which turns out to bebeneficial for the system operation, particularly when increasing thenumber of beamlets to 5,000 or more. Such manipulation is for instancecarried out by a condenser lens, a collimator, or lens structureconverging the subbeams to an optical axis, for instance in the plane ofthe projection lens.

A condenser lens array 21 (or a set of condenser lens arrays) isincluded behind the subbeam creating aperture array 6A, for focusing thesubbeams 20 towards a corresponding opening in the beam stop array 10. Asecond aperture array 6B generates beamlets 7 from the subbeams 20.Beamlet creating aperture array 6B is preferably included in combinationwith the beamlet blanker array 9. For instance, both may be assembledtogether so as to form a subassembly. In FIG. 74, the aperture array 6Bproduces three beamlets 7 from each subbeam 20, which strike the beamstop array 10 at a corresponding opening so that the three beamlets areprojected onto the target by the projection lens system in the endmodule 22. In practice a much larger number of beamlets may be producedby aperture array 6B for each projection lens system in end module 22.In one embodiment, 49 beamlets (arranged in a 7×7 array) are generatedfrom each subbeam and are directed through a single projection lenssystem, although the number of beamlets per subbeam may be increased to200 or more.

Generating the beamlets 7 stepwise from the beam 4 through anintermediate stage of subbeams 20 has the advantage that major opticaloperations may be carried out with a relatively limited number ofsubbeams 20 and at a position relatively remote from the target. Onesuch operation is the convergence of the subbeams to a pointcorresponding to one of the projection lens systems. Preferably thedistance between the operation and the convergence point is larger thanthe distance between the convergence point and the target. Mostsuitably, use is made of electrostatic projection lenses in combinationherewith. This convergence operation enables the system to meetrequirements of reduced spot size, increased current and reduced pointspread, so as to do reliable charged particle beam lithography atadvanced nodes, particularly at nodes with a critical dimension of lessthan 90 nm.

The beamlets 7 next pass through an array of modulators 9. This array ofmodulators 9 may comprise a beamlet blanker array having a plurality ofblankers, which are each capable of deflecting one or more of theelectron beamlets 7. The blankers are more specifically electrostaticdeflectors provided with a first and a second electrode, the secondelectrode being a ground or common electrode. The beamlet blanker array9 constitutes with beam stop array 10 a modulating device. On the basisof beamlet control data, the modulating means 8 add a pattern to theelectron beamlets 7. The pattern will be projected onto the target 24 bymeans of components present within an end module 22.

In this embodiment, the beam stop array 10 comprises an array ofapertures for allowing beamlets to pass through. The beam stop array, inits basic form, comprises a substrate provided with through-holes,typically round holes although other shapes may also be used. In oneembodiment, the substrate of the beam stop array 8 is formed from asilicon wafer with a regularly spaced array of through-holes, and may becoated with a surface layer of a metal to prevent surface charging. Inone embodiment, the metal is of a type that does not form a native-oxideskin, such as CrMo.

In one embodiment, the passages of the beam stop array 10 are alignedwith the holes in the beamlet blanker array 9. The beamlet blanker array9 and the beamlet stop array 10 operate together to block or let passthe beamlets 7. If beamlet blanker array 9 deflects a beamlet, it willnot pass through the corresponding aperture in beamlet stop array 10,but instead will be blocked by the substrate of beamlet block array 10.But if beamlet blanker array 9 does not deflect a beamlet, then it willpass through the corresponding apertures in beamlet stop array 10 andwill then be projected as a spot on a target surface 13 of the target24.

The lithography system furthermore comprises a data path for supplyingbeamlet control data to the beamlet blanker array. The beamlet controldata may be transmitted using optical fibers. Modulated light beams fromeach optical fiber end are projected on a light sensitive element on thebeamlet blanker array 9. Each light beam holds a part of the patterndata for controlling one or more modulators coupled to the lightsensitive element.

Subsequently, the electron beamlets 7 enter the end module. Hereinafter,the term ‘beamlet’ to refer to a modulated beamlet. Such a modulatedbeamlet effectively comprises time-wise sequential portions. Some ofthese sequential portions may have a lower intensity and preferably havezero intensity—i.e. portions stopped at the beam stop. Some portionswill have zero intensity in order to allow positioning of the beamlet toa starting position for a subsequent scanning period.

The end module 22 is preferably constructed as an insertable,replaceable unit, which comprises various components. In thisembodiment, the end module comprises a beam stop array 10, a scanningdeflector array 11, and a projection lens arrangement 12, although notall of these need be included in the end module and they may be arrangeddifferently.

After passing the beamlet stop array 10, the modulated beamlets 7 passthrough a scanning deflector array 11 that provides for deflection ofeach beamlet 7 in the X- and/or Y-direction, substantially perpendicularto the direction of the undeflected beamlets 7. In this embodiment, thedeflector array 11 is a scanning electrostatic deflector enabling theapplication of relatively small driving voltages, as will be explainedhereinafter.

Next, the beamlets pass through projection lens arrangement 12 and areprojected onto a target surface 24 of a target, typically a wafer, in atarget plane. For lithography applications, the target usually comprisesa wafer provided with a charged-particle sensitive layer or resistlayer. The projection lens arrangement 12 focuses the beamlet,preferably resulting in a geometric spot size of about 10 to 30nanometers in diameter. The projection lens arrangement 12 in such adesign preferably provides a demagnification of about 100 to 500 times.In this preferred embodiment, the projection lens arrangement 12 isadvantageously located close to the target surface.

In some embodiments, a beam protector may be located between the targetsurface 24 and the focusing projection lens arrangement 12. The beamprotector may be a foil or a plate, provided with needed apertures, forabsorbing the resist particles released from the wafer before they canreach any of the sensitive elements in the lithography system.Alternatively or additionally, the scanning deflection array 9 may beprovided between the projection lens arrangement 12 and the targetsurface 24.

Roughly speaking, the projection lens arrangement 12 focuses thebeamlets 7 to the target surface 24. Therewith, it further ensures thatthe spot size of a single pixel is correct. The scanning deflector 11deflects the beamlets 7 over the target surface 24. Therewith, it needsto ensure that the position of a pixel on the target surface 24 iscorrect on a microscale. Particularly, the operation of the scanningdeflector 11 needs to ensure that a pixel fits well into a grid ofpixels which ultimately constitutes the pattern on the target surface24. It will be understood that the macroscale positioning of the pixelon the target surface is suitably enabled by a wafer positioning systempresent below the target 24.

Such high-quality projection is relevant to obtain a lithography systemthat provides a reproducible result. Commonly, the target surface 24comprises a resist film on top of a substrate. Portions of the resistfilm will be chemically modified by application of the beamlets ofcharged particles, i.e. electrons. As a result thereof, the irradiatedportion of the film will be more or less soluble in a developer,resulting in a resist pattern on a wafer. The resist pattern on thewafer can subsequently be transferred to an underlying layer, i.e. byimplementation, etching and/or deposition steps as known in the art ofsemiconductor manufacturing. Evidently, if the irradiation is notuniform, the resist may not be developed in a uniform manner, leading tomistakes in the pattern. Moreover, many of such lithography systems makeuse of a plurality of beamlets. No difference in irradiation ought toresult from deflection steps.

In one embodiment of such an optical system, space is left between afirst and a second group of beamlets 7 originating from adjacentsubbeams 20. Therewith, the system is defined to contain beam areas 51and non-beam areas 52 as shown in FIG. 75. The division into beam areas51 and non-beam areas 52 is present both in the modulation device aswell as within the end module, e.g. the projection lens system. Thenon-beam areas 52 may be exploited in the projection lens system for theprovision of mechanical support structures so as to minimize the effectof any vibrations. The space corresponding to the non-beam areas 52 maybe filled, e.g. a predefined pattern is transferred to the space on thetarget in a subsequent step of the transfer process. This subsequentstep is carried out after moving the target relative to the column. Thespecific order of filling spaces is also referred to as the writingstrategy.

The invention has been described by reference to certain embodimentsdiscussed above. It should be noted various constructions andalternatives have been described, which may be used with any of theembodiments described herein, as would be know by those of skill in theart. Furthermore, it will be recognized that these embodiments aresusceptible to various modifications and alternative forms well known tothose of skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe invention. Accordingly, although specific embodiments have beendescribed, these are examples only and are not limiting upon the scopeof the invention, which is defined in the accompanying claims.

Definitions

The following represents further description by way of DEFINITIONS as tocertain aspects of the present invention, sometimes also referred to asclaims;

1. A method for exposing a wafer according to pattern data using acharged particle lithography machine generating a plurality of chargedparticle beamlets for exposing the wafer, the method comprising:

-   providing the pattern data in a vector format;-   rendering the vector pattern data to generate multi-level pattern    data;-   dithering the multi-level pattern data to generate two-level pattern    data;-   supplying the two-level pattern data to the charged particle    lithography machine;-   and switching on and off the beamlets generated by the charged    particle lithography machine on the basis of the two-level pattern    data;-   wherein the pattern data is adjusted on the basis of corrective    data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the pattern data comprisesadjusting the vector pattern data on the basis of first corrective data.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein adjusting the pattern datacomprises adjusting the multi-level pattern data on the basis of secondcorrective data.

4. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein adjusting thepattern data comprises adjusting the two-level pattern data on the basisof third corrective data.

5. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein rendering thevector pattern data comprises defining an array of pixel cells, andassigning multi-level values to the pixel cells based on relativecoverage of the pixel cells by features defined by the vector patterndata.

6. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein dithering themulti-level pattern data comprises forming the two-level pattern data byapplication of error diffusion on the multi-level pattern data.

7. The method of the immediately preceding claim, wherein the errordiffusion comprises distributing quantization error in a pixel of themulti-level pattern data to one or more adjacent pixels of themulti-level pattern data.

8. The method of the immediately preceding claim, wherein application oferror diffusion includes:

-   defining an array of pixels;-   dividing the array of pixels into portions, each portion being    assigned to be exposed by a different beamlet;-   determining error diffusion parameter values for each portion; and-   assigning a two-level value to the pixels within each portion using    error diffusion parameter values.

9. The method of the immediately preceding claim, wherein the errordiffusion parameter values comprises a threshold value and a weightvalue for the higher level of the two-level value.

10. The method of the immediately preceding claim, wherein the errordiffusion parameter values further comprises a weight value for thelower level of the two-level value.

11. The method of the two immediately preceding claims, wherein thethreshold value equals 50 percent of the high level pixel value.

12. The method of the immediately preceding claim, wherein the thresholdvalue equals the average of the high level pixel value and the low levelpixel value.

13. The method of the immediately preceding claim, wherein determiningthe error diffusion parameter values are based on beamlet currentmeasurements.

14. The method of any of the two immediately preceding claims, whereinthe error diffusion parameter value is a threshold value, and whereinassigning a two-level value to the pixel cells within a portion is basedon comparison with the threshold value determined for the portion.

15. The method of any of the three immediately preceding claims, whereinthe error diffusion parameter is a value representing the higher levelof the two-level value.

16. The method of any of the 10 immediately preceding claims, whereinthe error diffusion is a one-dimensional error diffusion.

17. The method of any of the 11 immediately preceding claims, whereinthe error diffusion is a two-dimensional error diffusion.

18. The method of any of the 12 immediately preceding claims, whereinthe application of error diffusion restricted by disallowing diffusiontowards one or more pixels with a multilevel value equal to or below afurther threshold value.

19. The method of the immediately preceding claim, wherein the furtherthreshold value equals zero.

20. The method of any of the 14 immediately preceding claims, whereinthe application of error diffusion is restricted by disallowingdiffusion to one or more pixels that are located outside the featuresdescribed in the vector pattern data.

21. The method of any of claims 2-20, wherein the first corrective datacomprises a proximity effect correction.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the proximity effect correctioncomprises a dose correction.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the proximity effect correctioncomprises a shape correction.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the proximity effect correctioncomprises a combination of dose correction and shape correction.

25. The method of any of claims 2-24, wherein the first corrective datacomprises a resist heating correction.

26. The method of any of claims 2-25, wherein the first corrective datacomprises a correction to compensate for variation in the position ofone or more of the beamlets.

27. The method of any of claims 2-26, wherein the first corrective datacomprises a correction to compensate for errors in the positioning of afield of the wafer with respect to the wafer.

28. The method of any of claims 2-27, wherein the first corrective datacomprises a correction to compensate for errors in the size of a fieldof the wafer.

29. The method of any of the three immediately preceding claims, whereinthe correction comprises an adjustment of the vector pattern data thatresults in shifting the multi-level pattern data by less than a fullpixel.

30. The method of any of the four immediately preceding claims, whereinthe wafer is moved in a mechanical scan direction during exposure of thewafer, and wherein the correction comprises an adjustment of the vectorpattern data that results a shift of the multi-level pattern data havinga component in both the mechanical scan direction and a directionsubstantially perpendicular to the mechanical scan direction.

31. The method of any of claims 2-30, wherein the first corrective datacomprises a correction to compensate for variation in the transmissiontime of the beamlet control signals to the lithography machine.

32. The method of any of claims 2-31, wherein the beamlets are switchedon and off by beamlet blanker electrodes in a beamlet blanker array,each beamlet blanker electrode receiving a beamlet control signal, andwherein the first corrective data comprises a correction to compensatefor a difference in the time when beamlet control signals are receivedby the beamlet blanker electrodes.

33. The method of any of claims 2-32, wherein the beamlets are deflectedto scan the surface of the wafer, and wherein the first corrective datacomprises a correction to compensate for variations in the amount ofdeflection experienced by different beamlets.

34. The method of any of claims 3-33, wherein dithering the multi-levelpattern data comprises assigning a high value or a low value for eachcorresponding multi-level value of the multilevel pattern data based oncomparison with a threshold value, and wherein a quantization error iscalculated by subtracting a weight of the high level value or a weightof the low level value from the multi-level pattern data, the weight ofthe high level value being defined on the basis of the second correctivedata.

35. The method of the immediately preceding claim, wherein the weight ofthe low value is defined on the basis of the second corrective data.

36. The method of any of the two immediately preceding claims, whereinthe threshold value is defined on the basis of the second correctivedata.

37. The method of any of claims 3-35, wherein dithering the multi-levelpattern data comprises determining a two-level value by comparing acorresponding multi-level value of the multi-level pattern data to athreshold value, and wherein adjusting the pattern data comprisesadjusting the threshold value on the basis of the second correctivedata.

38. The method of any of claims 3-37, wherein the second corrective datacomprises a correction to compensate for variation in the position ofone or more beamlets.

39. The method of any of claims 3-37, wherein the second corrective datacomprises a correction to compensate for errors in the positioning of afield of the wafer with respect to the wafer.

40. The method of any of claims 3-39, wherein the second corrective datacomprises a correction to compensate for errors in the size of a fieldof the wafer.

41. The method of any of the three immediately preceding claims, whereinthe correction comprises an adjustment of the multi-level pattern dataequivalent to shifting the multi-level pattern data by less than a fullpixel.

42. The method of any of the four immediately preceding claims, whereinthe wafer is moved in a mechanical scan direction during exposure of thewafer, and wherein the correction comprises an adjustment of themulti-level pattern data that results a shift having a component in boththe mechanical scan direction and a direction substantiallyperpendicular to the mechanical scan direction.

43. The method of any of claims 3-42, wherein the second corrective datacomprises a correction for realizing a soft edge between areas exposedby different beamlets or groups of beamlets.

44. The method of the immediately preceding claim, wherein the soft edgeis made by multiplying the multi-level pattern data with a soft edgefactor, the soft edge factor increasing linearly with the distance tothe edge until a maximum value is reached.

45. The method of the immediately preceding claim, wherein the maximumvalue is 1.

46. The method of the two immediately preceding claims, wherein astarting value of the factor is 0 at an edge.

47. The method of the immediately preceding claim, wherein the soft edgehas a width of about 0.5 to 1.5 micron.

48. The method of any of claims 4-47, wherein the third corrective datacomprises a correction to compensate for variation in the position ofone or more beamlets.

49. The method of any of claims 4-48, wherein the third corrective datacomprises a correction to compensate for errors in the positioning of afield of the wafer with respect to the wafer.

50. The method of any of claims 4-49, wherein the third corrective datacomprises a correction to compensate for errors in the size of a fieldof the wafer.

51. The method of any of claims 4-50, wherein the wafer is moved in amechanical scan direction during exposure of the wafer, and wherein thethird corrective data comprises a full pixel shift in the mechanicalscan direction.

52. The method of any of claims 4-51, wherein the wafer is moved in amechanical scan direction during exposure of the wafer, and wherein thethird corrective data comprises a full pixel shift in a directionsubstantially perpendicular to the mechanical scan direction.

53. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the step ofproviding pattern data in a vector format comprises: providing designdata describing a plurality of layers of a device design; andtransforming a layer of the design data to generate two dimensionalpattern data in vector format.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the design data comprises data in aGDS-II format.

55. The method of claim 53, wherein the design data comprises data in anOASIS format.

56. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the vectorpattern data comprises vector data describing the shape of features forpatterning on the wafer and dose values associated with the features.

57. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the vectorpattern data comprises vector data describing the shape of features forpatterning on the wafer and an array of dose values for correspondingareas on the wafer.

58. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein themulti-level pattern data comprises an array of multi-level valuesassigned to pixel cells.

59. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the multi-levelpattern data comprises gray scale bitmap data.

60. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the two-levelpattern data comprises black/white bitmap data.

61. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the rendering andrasterizing steps are performed by off-line processing whereby therendering and rasterizing of pattern data for the whole wafer iscompleted before the wafer scan begins.

62. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the rendering andrasterizing steps are performed once per design.

63. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the rendering andrasterizing steps are performed by in-line processing, whereby therendering and rasterizing of pattern data for a first set of fields ofthe wafer is completed before a scan of the first set of fields begins,while the rendering and rasterizing of pattern data for the remainingfields of the wafer continues during the scan of the first set offields.

64. The method of the immediately preceding claim, wherein the first setof fields and the remaining fields do not overlap.

65. The method of the immediately preceding claim, wherein the first setof fields and the remaining fields together comprise the complete areaof the wafer to be exposed.

66. The method of any of the 3 immediately preceding claims, wherein thefirst set of fields is exposed in a first scan of the wafer and theremaining fields are exposed in a second scan of the wafer.

67. The method of any of the 4 immediately preceding claims, wherein afirst subset of the beamlets is allocated for exposing the first set offields and a second subset of the beamlets is allocated for exposing theremaining fields.

68. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the rendering andrasterizing steps are performed once per wafer.

69. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the rendering andrasterizing steps are performed by real-time processing, whereby therendering and rasterizing for a first set of fields of the wafercontinues during the scan of the first set of fields.

70. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the rendering andrasterizing steps are performed once per field of the wafer.

71. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the rendering andrasterizing steps are performed during exposure of the wafer.

A further set of definitions relates to:

1. A charged particle lithography system for exposing a wafer accordingto pattern data, the system comprising: an electron optical column forgenerating a plurality of electron beamlets for exposing the wafer, theelectron optical column including a beamlet blanker array for switchingthe beamlets on or off; a data path for transmitting beamlet controldata for control of the switching of the beamlets; and

-   a wafer positioning system for moving the wafer under the electron    optical column in an x-direction, the wafer positioning system being    provided with synchronization signals from the data path to align    the wafer with the electron beams from the electron-optical column;-   wherein the data path comprises one or more processing units for    generating the beamlet control data and one or more transmission    channels for transmitting the beamlet control data to the beamlet    blanker array.

Transmission Channels/Multiplexing:

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmission system comprises aplurality of transmission channels, each transmission channel fortransmitting data for a corresponding group of beamlets.

3. The system of any of the preceding claims, wherein the beamlets arearranged in a plurality of groups, and wherein each transmission channelis for transmitting beamlet control data for one of the groups ofbeamlets.

4. The system of the immediately preceding claim, wherein the data pathcomprises a plurality of multiplexers, each multiplexer for multiplexingbeamlet control data for a group of beamlets.

5. The system of the immediately preceding claim, further comprising aplurality of demultiplexers, each demultiplexer for demultiplexingbeamlet control data for a group of beamlets.

6. The system of any of the preceding claims, wherein the data pathcomprises electrical-to-optical conversion devices for converting thebeamlet control data generated by the processing units to an opticalsignal for transmission to the charged particle lithography machine.

7. The system of the immediately preceding claim, wherein thetransmission channels comprise optical fibers for guiding the opticalsignal.

8. The system of any of the two immediately preceding claims, whereinthe beamlet blanker array comprises optical-to-electrical conversiondevices for receiving the optical signal and converting it to anelectrical signal for control of the beamlets.

9. The system of any of the three immediately preceding claims, whereinthe transmission system comprises an array of lenses and a mirror, thearray of lenses for guiding the optical signal onto the mirror, and themirror for reflecting the optical signal onto the beamlet blanker arrayof the charged particle lithography machine.

10. The system of any of the preceding claims, further comprising afirst number of processing units sufficient for processing the patterndata to generate first beamlet control data for a first subset of thebeamlets allocated for exposing a first portion of the wafer.

11. The system of any of the preceding claims, further comprising across-connect switch for connecting the processing units to a subset ofthe transmission channels.

12. The system of any of the preceding claims, wherein the beamlets arearranged in a plurality of groups, and wherein each processing unit isfor generating beamlet control data for any one group of beamlets, andeach transmission channel is dedicated for transmitting beamlet controldata for one of the groups of beamlets.

13. The method of the immediately preceding claim, wherein sevenprocessing units are provided for every twelve transmission channels.

14. The system of any of the two immediately preceding claims, whereinthe charged particle lithography system allocates a first subset of thebeamlets for exposing a first portion of the wafer and a second subsetof the beamlets for exposing a second portion of the wafer; and

-   wherein the cross-connect switch connects the processing units to a    first subset of the transmission channels corresponding to the first    subset of the beamlets for a scan of the first portion of the wafer,    and connects the processing units to a second subset of the    transmission channels corresponding to the second subset of the    beamlets for a scan of the second portion of the wafer.

15. The system of any of the preceding claims, wherein the first numberof processing units is sufficient for processing the pattern data togenerate the first beamlet control data and processing the pattern datato generate the second beamlet control data, but not sufficient forprocessing the pattern data to generate both the first and secondbeamlet control data at the same time.

16. The system of any of the preceding claims, wherein the lithographysystem is adapted for exposing the wafer in a dual-pass scan in which afirst portion of the wafer is exposed according to first pattern dataand subsequently a second portion of the wafer is exposed according tosecond pattern data, and wherein the processing units comprise memory,the memory being divided into a first memory portion for storing thefirst pattern data and a second memory portion for storing the secondpattern data, and wherein during exposure of the second portion of awafer of a current batch of wafers, first pattern data for a wafer of anext batch of wafers is loaded into the first memory portion.

17. A method for exposing a wafer in a charged particle lithographysystem, the method comprising:

-   generating a plurality of charged particle beamlets, the beamlets    arranged in groups, each group comprising an array of beamlets;-   moving the wafer under the beamlets in a first direction at a wafer    scan speed;-   deflecting the beamlets in a second direction substantially    perpendicular to the first direction at a deflection scan speed;-   and adjusting the wafer scan speed to adjust a dose imparted by the    beamlets on the wafer.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the beamlets expose the wafer usinga parallel projection writing strategy.

19. The method of any of claims 17-18, wherein the deflection scan speedcomprises a beamlet scan speed and a fly-back speed.

20. The method of any of claims 17-19, wherein each array of beamletshas a projection pitch Pproj in the first direction between beamlets ofthe array, and a group distance equal to the projection pitch Pprojmultiplied by the number of beamlets in the array, and

-   wherein a scan step, equal to the relative movement in the    x-direction between the beamlets and the wafer between each scan,    equals the group distance divided by an integer K.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the scan step is adjusted byadjusting a beamlet scan speed and/or a fly-back speed.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the scan step is adjusted byadjusting a beamlet deflection period, the beamlet deflection periodcomprising the time for one beamlet scan in the y-direction and abeamlet fly-back time.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the deflection period equals thegroup distance divided by integer K, divided by the beamlet scan speed.

24. The method of any of claims 20-24, wherein K satisfies a requirementthat the greatest common denominator of K and the number of beamlets ineach array, is one.

25. A method for exposing a wafer in a charged particle lithographysystem, the method comprising:

-   generating a plurality of charged particle beamlets, the beamlets    arranged in groups, each group comprising an array of beamlets;-   moving the wafer under the beamlets in an first direction at a wafer    scan speed;-   deflecting the beamlets in a second direction substantially    perpendicular to the first direction at a deflection scan speed;-   switching the beamlets on and off according to pattern data as the    beamlets are deflected to expose pixels onto the wafer; and-   adjusting the wafer scan speed relative to the deflection scan speed    to adjust the pixel width in the first direction.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the beamlets expose the wafer usinga parallel projection writing strategy.

27. The method of any of claims 25-26, wherein the deflection scan speedcomprises a beamlet scan speed and a fly-back speed.

28. The method of any of claims 25-27, wherein each array of beamletshas a projection pitch Pproj in the first direction between beamlets ofthe array, and a group distance equal to the projection pitch Pprojmultiplied by the number of beamlets in the array, and wherein a scanstep, equal to the relative movement in the x-direction between thebeamlets and the wafer between each scan, equals the group distancedivided by an integer K.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the scan step is adjusted byadjusting a beamlet scan speed and/or a fly-back speed.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the scan step is adjusted byadjusting a beamlet deflection period, the beamlet deflection periodcomprising the time for one beamlet scan in the y-direction and abeamlet fly-back time.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the deflection period equals thegroup distance divided by integer K, divided by the beamlet scan speed.

32. The method of any of claims 28-31, wherein K satisfies a requirementthat the greatest common denominator of K and the number of beamlets ineach array, is one.

33. A method for exposing a wafer in a charged particle lithographysystem, the method comprising: generating a plurality of chargedparticle beamlets, the beamlets arranged in groups, each groupcomprising an array of beamlets; creating relative movement in a firstdirection between the beamlets and the wafer; deflecting the beamlets ina second direction substantially perpendicular to the x-direction at adeflection scan speed, so that each beamlet exposes a plurality of scanlines on the wafer; and adjusting the relative movement in the firstdirection and the deflection of the beamlets in the second direction toadjust a dose imparted by the beamlets on the wafer; wherein each arrayof beamlets has a projection pitch Pproj in the first direction betweenbeamlets of the array, and a group distance equal to the projectionpitch Pproj multiplied by the number of beamlets in the array, andwherein the relative movement in the x-direction between the beamletsand the wafer between each scan equals the group distance divided by aninteger K.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein K satisfies a requirement that thegreatest common denominator of K and the number of beamlets in eacharray, is one.

35. The method of claim 33 or 34, wherein a width of the scan lines isthe projection pitch Pproj divided by integer K.

36. The method of any of claims 33-35, wherein the beamlets are switchedon and off according to pattern data as the beamlets are deflected toexpose pixels onto the wafer, and wherein a width of the pixels in thefirst direction is the projection pitch Pproj divided by integer K.

Yet, another set of definitions relates to:

1. A method for defining features for writing on a target using alithography process, the method comprising: defining an array of cells,the features occupying one or more of the cells; describing for eachcell any corners of the features that fall within the cell.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each corner is described by a cornerposition, a first vector, and a second vector, the two vectorsoriginating from the position.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the corner positions are described bytwo coordinates.

4. The method of any of claims 2-3, wherein the corner positions aredescribed by Cartesian coordinates.

5. The method of any of claims 2-4, wherein each vector is described byan orientation code specifying a direction for the vector.

6. The method of any of claims 2-5, wherein the feature is defined asthe area bounded by the vectors and the cell boundaries when moving in apredetermined direction from the first vector to the second vector.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the predetermined direction is aclockwise direction.

8. The method of any of claims 1-7, wherein a pseudo corner is definedfor a feature falling partly within a cell but otherwise having nocorners within the cell.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the pseudo corner is described byfirst and second vectors oriented at 180 degrees with respect to eachother.

10. The method of any of claims 2-9, wherein the vectors can only have adirection parallel to a cell boundary or perpendicular to a cellboundary.

11. The method of any of claims 2-9, wherein the vectors can only have adirection parallel to a cell boundary, perpendicular to a cell boundary,or at 45 degrees to a cell boundary.

12. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein a minimum featurepitch is defined and wherein the cells have a size equal to or less thanthe minimum feature pitch.

13. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein a minimum featurepitch is defined and wherein the cells have a size equal to or less thanhalf of the square root of two multiplied by the minimum feature pitch.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein a minimum feature pitch is definedhaving a size equal to or greater than the size of the cells multipliedby the square root of two.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein, for features or part of featureshaving an edge oriented at 45 degrees to a cell boundary, a minimumfeature pitch is defined having a size equal to or greater than the sizeof the cells multiplied by the square root of two.

16. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein a maximum numberof corners may be defined for each cell.

17. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein each cell maycontain one or more features, and/or a portion of one of more features.

18. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein each cellcomprises pattern data for part of a field of the wafer.

19. The method of the immediately preceding claim, wherein each cellcomprises pattern data of a stripe of a field of the wafer.

20. A method of processing pattern data for use in a lithographyprocess, the method comprising:

-   providing the pattern data in a vector format;-   transforming the vector pattern data a generate pattern data in a    cell based format; and-   rasterizing the cell based pattern data to generate two-level    pattern data for use in the lithography process.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the cell based pattern datacomprises cell data describing features occupying one or more of thecells of an array of cells, the cell data describing for each cell anycorners of the features that fall within the cell.

22. The method of claim 20 or 21, wherein rasterizing the cell basedpattern data is performed in real-time processing while the lithographyprocess is being performed.

23. The method of any of claims 20-22, wherein rasterizing the cellbased pattern data comprises:

-   rendering the cell based pattern data to generate multi-level    pattern data;-   dithering the multi-level pattern data to generate the two-level    pattern data.

24. A method for exposing a wafer according to pattern data using acharged particle lithography machine generating a plurality of chargedparticle beamlets for exposing the wafer, the method comprising:

-   providing the pattern data in a vector format; transforming the    vector pattern data a generate pattern data in a cell based format;-   rasterizing the cell based pattern data to generate two-level    pattern data; and-   streaming the two-level pattern data to a beamlet blanker array for    switching on and off the beamlets generated by the charged particle    lithography machine; and-   switching on and off the beamlets on the basis of the two-level    pattern data.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the cell based pattern datacomprises cell data describing features occupying one or more of thecells of an array of cells, the cell data describing for each cell anycorners of the features that fall within the cell.

26. The method of claim 24 or 25, wherein rasterizing the cell basedpattern data is performed in real-time processing while the lithographymachine is exposing the wafer.

27. The method of any of claims 24-26, wherein rasterizing the cellbased pattern data comprises:

-   rendering the cell based pattern data to generate multi-level    pattern data;-   dithering the multi-level pattern data to generate the two-level    pattern data.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for exposing a plurality ofstripes of a field of a wafer using a plurality of charged particlebeamlets by an electron optical column of a charged particle lithographysystem comprising a moveable stage, the method comprising: transmittingcontrol signals for the charged particle beamlets by channels of a datapath, wherein each channel transmits beamlet control data for a group ofthe beamlets, wherein each group of beamlets is arranged to scan onestripe of the field of the wafer; identifying non-functional beamlets ofthe charged particle lithography system among the beamlets prior toperforming a first scan; calculating, by a processing unitcommunicatively connected to the charged particle lithography system, afirst subset of the beamlets, first channels and a first wafer offsetfor exposing a first portion of the stripes, the first subset of thebeamlets excluding the non-functional beamlets as identified prior toperforming the first scan; calculating, by the processing unit, a secondsubset of the beamlets, second channels and a second wafer offset forexposing a second portion of the stripes, the second subset alsoexcluding the non-functional beamlets as identified prior to performingthe first scan; moving the wafer using the moveable stage to a firstposition based on the first wafer offset before beginning the firstscan; performing the first scan for exposing the entire first portion ofthe stripes using the first channels; moving the wafer using themoveable stage to a second position based on the second wafer offsetafter the first scan and before beginning the second scan, wherein thesecond position is shifted with respect to the first position; andperforming the second scan of the same field of said wafer to be exposedin the charged particle lithography system for exposing the entiresecond portion of the stripes using the second channels, wherein thefirst and second wafer offsets comprise shifting the wafer with respectto the electron optical column in the y-direction and/or x-direction byan amount corresponding to a number of stripes until channels withproperly functioning beamlets are positioned to write the respectiveportions of the stripes, wherein the first and second portions of thestripes do not overlap and together comprise the complete area of thewafer to be exposed; and wherein the first subset of the beamlets isdifferent from the second subset of the beamlets.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the first and second subsets are substantially equal in size.3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second portions eachcomprise selected stripes from a plurality of fields of the target. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the non-functional beamletscomprises measuring the beamlets to identify failed orout-of-specification beamlets.
 5. The method of claim 4, whereinmeasuring the beamlets comprises directing the plurality of beamletsonto a sensor and detecting presence of the beamlets.
 6. The method ofclaim 4, wherein measuring the beamlets comprises directing theplurality of beamlets onto a sensor and measuring beamlet position. 7.The method of claim 4, wherein measuring the beamlets comprises scanningthe plurality of beamlets onto a sensor and measuring beamletdeflection.
 8. The method of claim 4, wherein measuring the beamletscomprises scanning the plurality of beamlets onto a sensor and measuringbeamlet current.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality ofbeamlets are divided into groups, each group of beamlets for exposing acorresponding stripe within each field of the target.
 10. The method ofclaim 1, wherein a position of the target with respect to the pluralityof beamlets is different at the beginning of the second scan than at thebeginning of the first scan.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein thebeamlets are switched on and off by a beamlet blanker array during eachscan according to beamlet control data.
 12. The method of claim 11,wherein the beamlet control data comprise first beamlet control data forswitching the first subset of beamlets during the first scan, and secondbeamlet control data for switching the second subset of beamlets duringthe second scan, and wherein the method further comprises transmittingthe first beamlet control data to the beamlet blanker array during thefirst scan and transmitting the second beamlet control data to thebeamlet blanker array during the second scan.
 13. The method of claim12, further comprising processing pattern data to generate the beamletcontrol data, and wherein the second beamlet control data is generatedduring the first scan.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein processingthe pattern data comprises rasterizing the pattern data to generate thebeamlet control data, and wherein the rasterizing for the second beamletcontrol data is performed during the first scan.
 15. The method of claim13, wherein processing the pattern data comprises preparing the beamletcontrol data for streaming to the beamlet blanker array, and wherein thesecond beamlet control data is prepared for streaming to the blankerarray during the first scan.
 16. The method of claim 12, furthercomprising processing pattern data to generate the beamlet control data,and wherein the first beamlet control data of the next target to beexposed is generated during the second scan of the target currentlybeing exposed.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein processing thepattern data comprises rasterizing the pattern data to generate thebeamlet control data, and wherein the rasterizing for the first beamletcontrol data of the next target to be exposed is performed during thesecond scan of the target currently being exposed.
 18. The method ofclaim 16, wherein processing the pattern data comprises preparing thebeamlet control data for streaming to the beamlet blanker array, andwherein the first beamlet control data of the next target to be exposedis prepared for streaming to the blanker array during the second scan ofthe target currently being exposed.
 19. The method of claim 12, furthercomprising: providing a first number of processing units sufficient forprocessing the pattern data to generate the first beamlet control data;providing a second number of channels for transmitting the beamletcontrol data to the beamlet blanker array, each channel transmittingdata for a corresponding group of beamlets; connecting the processingunits to the channels corresponding to the first subset of beamlets forexposing the first portion of the target; processing the pattern data inthe processing units to generate the first beamlet control data; andtransmitting the first beamlet control data to the beamlet blankerarray.
 20. The method of claim 12, further comprising: providing a thirdnumber of processing units sufficient for processing the pattern data togenerate the second beamlet control data; providing a fourth number ofchannels for transmitting the beamlet control data to the beamletblanker array, each channel transmitting data for a corresponding groupof beamlets; connecting the processing units to the channelscorresponding to the second subset of beamlets for exposing the secondportion of the target; processing the pattern data in the processingunits to generate the second beamlet control data; and transmitting thesecond beamlet control data to the beamlet blanker array.
 21. The methodof claim 16, wherein the first number of processing units is sufficientfor processing the pattern data to generate the first beamlet controldata and processing the pattern data to generate the second beamletcontrol data, but not sufficient for processing the pattern data togenerate both the first and second beamlet control data at the sametime.
 22. The method of claim 16, wherein seven processing units areprovided for every twelve channels.
 23. The method of claim 1, whereinmoving the target to the second position after the first scan and beforebeginning a second scan comprises: moving the target back to the firstposition after the first scan; shifting the target to the secondposition after the first scan and before beginning the second scan. 24.A charged particle lithography system for exposing a plurality ofstripes of a field of a wafer using a plurality of charged particlebeamlets, the system comprising: a charged particle optics columnincluding a blanker configured for generating charged particle beamletsfor projection of a pattern onto the wafer, wherein the beamlets aredivided into groups, wherein each group of beamlets is arranged to scanone stripe of the field of the wafer; a target support comprising amoveable stage, said column and target support being included moveablerelative to one another in the system; and a data path configured forprocessing and transferring pattern data to the blanker, said blankerbeing configured to switch each of said beamlets on and off in respectof projection on said wafer, said data path comprising processing unitsfor processing the pattern data into projection data related to astripe, and said data path comprising channels connected to the blankerfor individually controlling beamlets by said projection data, eachchannel being assigned to transmit beamlet control signals to acorresponding beamlet group for exposing the corresponding stripeaccording to the pattern data, wherein the system further comprises asensor configured to identify non-functional beamlets of the chargedparticle lithography system among the beamlets prior to performing afirst scan, wherein a processing unit of the data path is configured tocalculate a first subset of the beamlets, first channels and a firstwafer offset for exposing a first portion of the stripes, the firstsubset of the beamlets excluding the non-functional beamlets asidentified prior to performing the first scan, wherein the processingunit is further configured to calculate a second subset of the beamlets,second channels and a second wafer offset for exposing a second portionof the stripes, the second subset also excluding the non-functionalbeamlets as identified prior to performing the first scan, wherein thesystem is further configured to move the wafer using the moveable stageto a first position based on the first wafer offset before beginning thefirst scan, wherein the system is further configured to perform thefirst scan for exposing the entire first portion of the stripes usingthe first channels, wherein the system is further configured to move thewafer using the moveable stage to a second position based on the secondwafer offset after the first scan and before beginning the second scan,wherein the second position is shifted with respect to the firstposition, wherein the system is further configured to perform the secondscan of the same field of said wafer to be exposed in the chargedparticle lithography system for exposing the entire second portion ofthe stripes using the second channels, wherein the first and secondwafer offsets comprise shifting the wafer with respect to the electronoptical column in the y-direction and/or x-direction by an amountcorresponding to a number of stripes until channels with properlyfunctioning beamlets are positioned to write the respective portions ofthe stripes, wherein the first and second portions of the stripes do notoverlap and together comprise the complete area of the wafer to beexposed, and wherein the first subset of the beamlets is different fromthe second subset of the beamlets.